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Another Ian Fleming is alive and well in Scarborough

24-Nov-2006 • Literary

The name's Fleming, Ian Fleming – and he has a licence to teach.

The head at East Ayton Primary School shares his name with the creator of James Bond, the world's most famous secret agent.

But that is where the similarities end.
The nearest Mr Fleming will get to a Q is the line of children in the school dinner hall.

"My name has led to a few remarks over the years," Mr Fleming said. "But it's all good fun and you get used to it, but I don't think I have much in common with the other Ian Fleming."

The Bond creator was born in Mayfair, London in 1908 into a background of privilege. Mr Fleming, the teacher, was born in 1959 near Bishop Auckland, Co Durham and had a relatively normal upbringing.

While the Bond novelist was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, his namesake went to primary and secondary schools in Willington before doing A-levels at Wolsingham Grammar in Weardale Fleming went on to study languages on the continent, first at Kitzbühel, Austria, then to Munich University, and, finally, to improve his French at the University of Geneva.

The other Fleming, who lives in Scarborough, trained to be a teacher at the town's former North Riding College of Education.

Fleming the writer worked first as a sub-editor and journalist for the Reuters news service, including time in 1933 in Moscow,

During World War Two Fleming worked in naval intelligence.

Fleming's intelligence career was the background and experience for the James Bond novels.

East Ayton School's Ian Fleming is a highly-thought-of headteacher who has more than 25 years' experience in classrooms around the country.
He is in charge of almost 200 children at the primary school.

The first novel published by Ian Fleming was Casino Royale in 1953.
Besides writing 12 novels and nine short stories featuring James Bond, secret agent 007, he also wrote the children's novel Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

The James Bond books were very successful, even before they were adapted to cinema and that enabled Fleming to retire comfortably to his cottage in Jamaica, 'Goldeneye', where he wrote all of the Bond novels.

Fleming, who smoked and drank heavily, died of a heart attack on August 12, 1964 in Canterbury, Kent, aged 56 and was buried in the churchyard cemetery of Sevenhampton village, near Swindon.

Thanks to `Brokenclaw` for the alert.

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