CBC, 16 Nov 09:  A Winnipeg street has been renamed for a local man who became a legendary Second World War spy known as Intrepid — an inspiration for the fictional spook James Bond.  Water Avenue, which links Main Street to the Provencher Bridge, was officially renamed William Stephenson Way on Sunday. . .

. . . . As a Canadian soldier, airman and spymaster, Stephenson became the senior representative of British intelligence for the Western Hemisphere during the Second World War. The telegraphic address of his office was INTREPID, which was later popularized as his code name.

His organization’s activities ranged from censoring transatlantic mail, breaking letter codes (which exposed at least one German spy in the United States), forging diplomatic documents, obtaining military codes, protecting against sabotage of Allied factories and training Allied agents, according to the Intrepid Society, a group dedicated to honouring and sustaining Stephenson’s memory.

Stephenson was also a radio pioneer who helped develop a way of transmitting photographs around the world. But it was his espionage work that garnered the most fame. Some suggest his covert operations in the Second World War were a decisive factor in the Allied victory. . . .

. . . . As Winston Churchill’s personal representative to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the war, Stephenson became a close advisor to FDR and suggested he put William J. Donovan in charge of all U.S. intelligence services.

Donovan, a good friend of Stephenson, founded the U.S. wartime Office of Strategic Services, which eventually became the CIA. Donovan later said, “Bill Stephenson taught us all we ever knew about foreign intelligence,” according to the Intrepid Society. . .