Anthony Wells is unique insofar as he is the only living person to have worked for British Intelligence as a British citizen and US Intelligence as a US citizen, and to have also served in uniform at sea and ashore with both the Royal Navy and the US Navy. He is a 50-year veteran of the Five Eyes Intelligence Community. In 2017, he was the keynote speaker on board HMS Victory in Portsmouth, England, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the famous Zimmermann Telegram intelligence coup by ‘Blinker’ Hall and his Room 40 team in British Naval Intelligence. The guest of honour was Her Royal Highness Princess Anne, with the Five Eyes community, past and present, representing the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand in attendance. Dr Wells, or Commander Wells, was trained and mentored in the late 1960s by the very best of the World War Two Intelligence Community, including Sir Harry Hinsley, the famous Bletchley Park code breaker, official historian of British intelligence in the Second World War, master of St John’s College, Cambridge, and vice chancellor of Cambridge University. Sir Harry Hinsley introduced Dr Wells to the Enigma data before it became public knowledge. Dr Wells received his PhD in war studies from King’s College, University of London, in 1972. He holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Durham, and a master’s degree from the London School of Economics. He was trained at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth, and received his advanced training at the School of Maritime Operations. He was called to the bar by Lincoln’s Inn in November 1980. Anthony Wells has four children and eight grandchildren and lives on his farm in Virginia. He is a member of the Naval Order of the United States and was appointed an Honorary Crew Member of USS Liberty by the USS Liberty Veterans Association. USS Liberty is the most highly decorated warship in the history of the US Navy for a single action: when it was attacked by Israeli air and surface forces on August 8, 1967, in the eastern Mediterranean. Dr Wells is the third chairman of the USS Liberty Alliance, succeeding the later Admiral Thomas Moorer, former chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and chief of Naval Operations; and the late Rear Admiral Clarence ‘Mark’ Hill, former distinguished US naval aviator and battle group commander. He is a retired US National Ski Patrol patroller and instructor and a life member and former president of The Plains, Virginia, Volunteer Fire Rescue Company. Wells is an FAA commercial pilot with single and multiengine, land and sea and instrument and flight instructor ratings.
