Charles Fraser-Smith

Charles Fraser-Smith was an author and one-time missionary who is widely credited as being the inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond quartermaster Q. During World War II, Fraser-Smith worked for the Ministry of Supply, fabricating equipment nicknamed "Q-devices" for SOE agents operating in occupied Europe. His office also collaborated in many projects alongside the American Stan Lovell and the OSS R&D Branch in devices to be fielded by the US military. Prior to the war, Fraser-Smith had worked as a missionary in North Africa. After the war he purchased a dairy farm in Burrington, Devon, where he died in 1992.