Who's working for who now........... TIGGY AND THE SPOOK When Wills' and Harry's former nanny tied the knot, an air if genteel society charm prevailed. But her new husband has some very shadowy connections. Mark Hollingsworth gets behind the elegant façade. The wedding of Tiggy Legge-Bourke, former nanny to Princes William and Harry, and Charles Pettifer was, because of her royal connections, a high-profile affair. But, away from the grainy paparazzi shots, there was a more shadowy side to it, one which embraced the murky worlds of military intelligence and private security consultancy For Legge-Bourke, an assistant to Prince Charles who has lived in an apartment at St James's Palace for the past five years, has married into the business of espionage and specialised security services. Her husband is chief executive of Rapport Research and Analysis Ltd., which supplies corporations with former SAS officers to protect their interests in high-risk countries. Rapport also employs a large number of former Intelligence Corps warrant officers, who have been carefully investigated by MI5 for security clearance. In some cases, they were subject to enhanced vetting because of the sensitive nature of their work - running secret informants and handling classified documents at the Ministry of Defence. Fellow former military intelligence officers had no doubt about the company's role. "You're a front for the bloody spooks," an amused contact jibed at Dodd, who went bright red and denied the claim. Rapport's close relationship with government was illustrated by the company's chairman, Sir Robin Ross. A former Royal Marine commandant who retired in 1996, Ross served in the Middle East and the Caribbean. He represents the company at a senior level in dealing with clients, the MoD and Foreign Office and other government departments. Rapport's speciality is what it calls "crisis and contingency planning for companies operating in high-risk areas". Its main clients are multi-national oil and gold corporations with interests in North Africa and the Middle East. If the country is perceived as unstable, Rapport will send in operatives to gather intelligence and assess the security risk to commercial activity. If the conditions are favourable, they can then supply bodyguards and security personnel. Pettifer also set up Unique Security Consultants Ltd., which provides former SAS officers as bodyguards for private clients. Pettifer was company secretary and a director until May 1997, when he resigned to concentrate on Rapport. Security sources are divided about Rapport and Unique's precise relationship with state agencies like military intelligence and MI6. One view is that Rapport is a front for the spooks and is, in effect, a privatised agency. Another source says companies like Rapport are merely adapting intelligence methodology and information to the commercial sector to make money He claims it is more likely that MI6 uses such companies after they have been set up, rather than consciously incorporating them in advance. Pettifer's new wife will no doubt find her new cloak-and-dagger world intriguing, but it will not be too unfamiliar: her father was a captain in the British army before becoming a banker, her mother is a lady-in-waiting to Princess Anne and her brother is an officer in the Welsh guards. Tiggy has known Pettifer since they were teenagers, when they had a brief romance while he was at Eton and she was at Heathfield, near Ascot. They remained friends even when Pettifer was married to Camilla Wyatt, and Legge-Bourke was godmother to their children. It wasn't until late 1996, early 1997 when their relationship became more intimate. As for Princes William and Harry, Legge-Bourke remains close to them and they are delighted at their former nanny's choice of husband. William is an admirer of the SAS and, apparently, has told his father that he wants to join the Special Forces. To what extent Pettifer will exploit his royal links is unclear. One thing is for sure the security at his wedding was tight and omnipresent. ====================================== Punch #93 - November 6-19 1999
