Downes, Donald, 1903-

Donald Chase Downes was born on September 30, 1903 in Catonsville, Maryland. He attended Yale College and received his B.A. in 1935. In 1940 Downes began a career in military intelligence and worked as a spy for the British in the Balkans and the United States through 1941. He served in the OSS from 1942 through 1944 in North Africa and Italy. Following the war Downes resided in Europe and Beirut and pursued a literary career. He died in California on March 26, 1983.

Donald Chase Downes was born on September 30, 1903 in Catonsville, Maryland. He attended Yale College and received his B.A. in 1935. In 1940 Downes began a career in military intelligence and worked as a spy for the British in the Balkans and the United States through 1941. He served in the OSS from 1942 through 1944 in North Africa and Italy. Following the war Downes resided in Europe and Beirut and pursued a literary career. He died in California on March 26, 1983.

Donald Chase Downes was born on September 30, 1903 in Catonsville, Maryland, the son of Joseph Lodowick and Effie Chase Downes. He attended Kent School, Phillips Exeter, and Yale College. He left Yale with the class of 1926 for teaching positions in Great Barrington, Massachusetts and at Cheshire Academy. He returned to Yale in 1930 and again in 1934-1935. After completing his course work, he received his B.A. from Yale in June 1935 and accepted a teaching position at a school on Cape Cod, where he lived for the next five years.

When in April 1940 Downes learned that the school was closing he decided to pursue a career in military intelligence. Downes received a reserve commission from the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) and secured a position as a teacher of English at Robert College in Turkey as cover for his espionage work. From October 1940 to March 1941 he worked for British intelligence in the Balkans, until he was ordered to return to the United States by ONI. He was then employed by the Free World Association from which position he spied on American isolationist groups for British intelligence. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Downes joined the American OSS, first operating in Washington, D.C. and, beginning in 1943, in North Africa and then Italy and Cairo. Downes's espionage work is detailed in Robin Winks's book, Cloak & Gown . Downes returned to Washington in August 1944, his intelligence career all but ended, but returned to Italy in February 1945 as a correspondent for a news agency. Downes remained in Europe at the end of the war, traveling and writing. In 1953 Downes published his wartime memoirs, The Scarlet Thread, and the following year collaborated on a cookbook, With Gusto and Relish . In September 1955 he was permitted to return to Italy where he continued his writing and achieved public recognition as an author for his spy thriller Orders to Kill, A Red Rose for Maria, and The Easter Dinner . In 1961 he assisted his friend Peter Tompkins in revising his wartime journal for publication as A Spy in Rome . Between 1969 and 1975 Downes researched questions of military justice and the prosecution of war criminals. He studied the case of German General Anton Dostler in depth, though he never published the results of his inquiry.

Downes moved to London in 1975 and returned to California in 1980. He died on March 26, 1983.