True Crime: Case of British spy Buster Crabb last seen in Portsmouth is one of UK's most mysterious disappearances

In 1956, the peculiar disappearance of Commander Lionel ‘Buster’ Crabb sparked one of the biggest spy mysteries ever – and the truth is still untold following the extension of the security classification to 100 years, which will run out in 2057. April 19 marked 67 years since he vanished.

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Soviet leaders Marshal Bulganin and Nikita Khrushchev were in Portsmouth on a state visit aboard the cruiser Ordzhonikidze, accompanied by two destroyers.

Buster was last seen at the Sally Port Inn, Old Portsmouth, where he was getting ready for a mission for MI6 to complete a survey on the cruiser.

The spy was a brave diver and left the inn before dawn on April 19,1956 with a colleague to meet Lieutenant Commander George Franklin, who was a senior clearance diver.

They were on board the HMS Maidstone, which was approximately 70 metres from the Ordzhonikidze and Buster submerged himself into the water to carry out his mission but returned to the ship complaining of bad visibility. He went back under and that was the last time he was seen alive.

The governing authority wanted to prevent the disappearance of Buster headlining the newspapers whilst the Russians were still on their visit and a police liaison officer went to the Sally Port Inn to remove any trace of the spy and his colleague bunking there.

He took the pages of the inn’s registry and burnt them but by April 30, the press were printing speculative pieces surrounding the disappearance.

Police officers in the Chichester area were instructed not to inform the press if a body was discovered.

On June 9, 1957, over a year after he went missing, a body, which was badly decomposed and was without a head or arms, was washed up in Chichester Harbour. The body was of a middle-aged man in a rubber suit and the cause of death was unknown.

It is unclear what happened to the spy in the timings from when he disappeared to when his body was recovered but the inn remains at the centre of the mystery.

It is believed that James Bond author, Ian Fleming, based a lot of his work on Buster Crabb.

Anna Dahlstrom, the bar manager at the Sally Port Inn, said recently: ‘He was the real-life James Bond, a naval officer and MI6 security service.

‘It is amazing, I have always been a bit of a history buff and this is a dream place to live but the inn itself has an amazing history – it is great.’

Credits:

Presenter, Julia Worsley - Kings Theatre

Mark Smith, Sally Port Inn

Ann Bevan - www.gosportsociety.co.uk/

Crabbgate - John Bevan

Jim Bramble and Chris Brunnen

www.cjbphotography.co.uk/

www.filmcrew4u.co.uk/