Bug-sweeping history and the intelligence industry
Charles Bovill, Inventor
Charles Bovill (18 February 1911 - 9 May 2001) was a British electronics engineer and inventor. During WWII, he worked for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) for which he invented devices like Rebecca and the S-Phone. During the 1970s and 80s, he became known for his invention of the non-linear junction detector (NLJD), also known as the Broom which was a device able to locate (radio) bugs, even when they are switched off.
The Broom was first sold by Allen International Ltd in Westminster, which was a front operation of MI6. Allen International was a subsidary of Technical Services Ltd, another MI6 front, operated by his friend and colleague Lee Tracey, the inventor of the Scanlock bug tracer.
We still have our Broom and scan locks from the early 1990s.Early Life and Career
Charles Barton Bovill was born on the 18th of Febrary, 1911 in Battersea, South London. He was educated at Bedford School, the University of Grenoble (France) and the Regent Street Polytechnic (London), after which he joined HMV as a radio engineer in 1933. In 1935 he made the move to the Air Ministry, where he worked in the wireless telegraphy section, and three years later to Marconi.
During WWII, Marconi lent him to RAF Bomber and Coastal Commands where he started working as a radio development engineer. His work was noticed by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) who recruited him in October 1941 for the Inter-Service Research Bureau (ISRB) - a cover for the technical research and development division of the SOE. In April 1942, he became a flight lieutenant with the Technical, Signals and Radar Branch of the Royal Airforce Volunteer Reserve. In order to find corroded parts on airplanes, Bovill developed the non-linear junction detector (NLJD).
Spy gadget supplies, and Bovill as Q
Towards the end of the war, he returned to the ISRB until May 1945, when he became a civilian again and started working for Decca. In 1972, he became technical director of Allen International Ltd, a company located above a bedding shop in Westminster that specialized in miniature microphones, bugs and other spy equipment. Allen International was then covering for certain MI6 activities, and supplied the Q-type gadgets for the James Bond movies. When the shop was closed down in the mid-1970s, the activities were taken over by yet another MI6 front: Security Research Ltd of Guildford Surrey.
Bovill died aged 90, and will be remembered as the inspiration for the archetypal technology buff behind every successful intelligence operation: able to outwit Britain's Cold War counterparts as well as to furnish Her Majesty's agents with mission-critical electronic wizardry.