DIRECTOR GENERAL OF MI5 BLOCKING RELEASE OF SENSITIVE BRITISH GOVERNMENT FILES

The life of my uncle, John Francis Smith, remains something of an enigma and many questions remain unanswered. After his death on 05 March 2005, I was left with the job of not only organising his funeral but also of trying to unravel the mystery of his secret life. Searching through his flat in Hampstead, London, revealed little of significance except for the passport and photograph reproduced here.

John left no will and he had not seen any member of his family for over 50 years. My father last saw him in Peterborough in 1953, where he worked for an 'American company'. John then went into Government Service but the exact nature of his work remains unclear. However, from confirmed sources we are now certain that John was a whistleblower who tried to expose wrongdoing on the part of the British Government and was sacked.

The term 'Government Service' in the context of occupation, applies only to the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), The Security Service (MI5) and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Therefore, we are now certain that John Francis Smith was a dissident British Intelligence Officer.

And reliable sources also confirm that John's postal mail both outgoing and incoming was vetted thereafter by the Metropolitan Police Special Branch (MPSB). John was listed as a threat to national security and was monitored by the agencies of the British State. His crime? Attempting to disseminate the truth in the public interest.

Sifting through his correspondence was a rather easy task: John Francis Smith does not exist between August 1931 and June 1984, except for the unused passport. He had no photographs of himself, his family or friends. The only photograph we have of John in adulthood is reproduced here. We were sent a second photograph by a confidential source.

It is not reasonable nor plausible that any man would seek to eradicate his own life leaving behind no trace of his past before June 1984 - a gap of 53 years. Clearly, this aberration has all the hallmarks of a clean-up operation carried out by government agencies. It is interesting that John's life in terms of paper records begins again in June 1984....

John did confide in the nature of what he did in 'Government Service' to his mother, Margaret Tomlin, but she took this knowledge to the grave with her, fearing greatly for her son's safety. Margaret Tomlin died on 10 January 1983 at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham. But before my grandmother died, she had the good sense to disseminate some details of John's work to other family members in Texas and California, USA.

On the day of John's funeral, 17 March 2005, we spotted the same surveillance officers following us at Watford Gap and Northampton Service Station on the M1 Motorway. We were also surveilled at The George public house on Hungerhill Road in Hampstead after his funeral and on Hampstead Hill Gardens before the funeral.

Why would a surveillance operation be carried out against a funeral? Clearly, the spooks and their Special Branch enforcers wanted to know exactly who attended the funeral and what if anything of interest took place. The surveillance of my uncle's funeral was a gross abuse of my family's right to privacy!

John was also subjected to a completely unnecessary Post Mortem which left him so disfigured that we were unable to view him in his coffin at J H Kenyon's funeral parlour on Pond Street, Hampstead. This is all the more bizarre given the fact that cause of death was known (Ischaemic heart disease/congestive cardiac failure) and as such no Post Mortem was required. But Dr Alex Mayer at the Royal Free Hospital insisted on the Post Mortem and as a result we were denied our last opportunity to see John.

Dr Alex Mayer and the Royal Free Hospital have some serious questions to answer as to why they pressed for a Post Mortem to be carried out and would not take no for an answer. A Post Mortem is only required where cause of death is unknown or in cases of suspicious death when murder is suspected. The Hospital's Archive Department has refused all cooperation in this matter which in itself demonstrates a cover-up is being carried out.

On 24 March 2005, just seven days after his funeral, my home was raided by the police during which I was assaulted by the police - see photograph. My laptop computer was seized and sent away for examination. The police denied any interest in the data on my laptop HDD but on 13 May 2005, PC Cathy Austin admitted that my data had been checked.


PC Austin explained that "if anything is found that does not belong to you, it has to be reported." It should be noted that PC Austin declined to tell me to which 'authority' such matters have to be reported. It is certain that Special Branch would be informed of any development and they in turn would update the menacing and useless organisation MI5. On 12 July 2005, I was refused charge by the CPS.

With all of this in mind, we are launching this very timely appeal for information about the incomplete life of John Francis Smith. The British Government has refused all cooperation in this matter and we have been blocked at every stage of our investigation to unravel the mystery of John's life. However, the truth cannot be concealed ad infinitum and we will uncover the truth!

All information received will be treated in strict confidence and nothing will be published without the express permission of the informant. Nor will we publish anything that could be construed to breach the Official Secrets Act. We are simply looking for information to help us to lay to rest the mystery of his life, so that we can have peace of mind. We are not seeking to damage the national interest!

Perhaps you worked or socialised with John and have useful information to yield and if so we would like to hear from you. In his 'retirement' John spent much of his time walking on Hampstead Heath, where he lays to rest, just 200 yards from his home at South Hill Park, Hampstead, where he lived for over 40 years. He was also an active member of the Conservative Party in Hampstead and Highgate.

We also know for certain that John had written two manuscripts for books he intended to publish, although one manuscript was unfinished. The subject matter of both books detailed the nature of what he attempted to uncover in Government Service. These manuscripts were not in his property when we conducted a search on 9 March 2005. Therefore, we must conclude that the manuscripts were seized on the orders of British Intelligence.

John was an authoritarian but altruistic and studious man, an avid reader of poetry and literature. In the 1980s he attempted to retrain as a journalist but was refused funding. By then no government department in Britain would employ him.

And though the Government will not cooperate with us, our investigations will continue until the truth is arrived at. If you have any relevant information to yield, please email us. Your contact will be treated in strict confidence! All information received will be put to a meticulous evidential test as one would expect in a matter of this nature.


We would like to thank everyone who has assisted with this investigation and helped to build a clearer picture of events than we had before. Your information has proved valuable and where this exists in the form of documents, they have been heavily encrypted using biometric algorithms and archived at separate safe locations.