Джон Колин Уоллес: История британского разведчика и разоблачителя.

British Army intelligence officer

John Colin Wallace (born June 1943) is a British former member of Army Intelligence in Northern Ireland and a psychological warfare specialist. He refused to become involved in the Intelligence led 'Clockwork Orange' project, which was an attempt to smear various individuals including a number of senior British politicians in the early 1970s. Wallace also attempted to draw public attention to the Kincora Boys' Home sexual abuse scandal several years before the Royal Ulster Constabulary intervened. He was wrongly convicted of manslaughter in 1981, for which he spent six years in prison, until 1987.

Wallace joined the Ministry of Defence on 15 March 1968 as an assistant information officer for the British Army at its Northern Ireland headquarters at Thiepval Barracks in Lisburn. He became an established information officer from 14 December 1971, and a senior information officer with effect from 27 September 1974, having first held this latter post on temporary promotion from 1972. As well as carrying out overt information work for the British Army, Wallace was also working for 14 Intelligence Company as a member of the ultra secret Army Psychological Operations unit (Information Policy), covertly attempting to undermine, disrupt and control paramilitary groups. In the years following his appointment to the Information Policy unit, Wallace received high praise from the senior staff at Thiepval. In 1971, his Annual Confidential Report concluded: 'This is an officer of the highest calibre. Totally dedicated to the Army, he demonstrates this by a devotion to duty that is truly remarkable.' The counter signing officer scribbled underneath: 'I heartily agree.' In 1972, the Chief of Staff recorded that enthusiasm and dedication were not his only virtues. His abilities were just as remarkable: 'Continues to demonstrate that his talents are of the very highest standard.' Wallace's former boss, Major Tony Staughton, confirmed that by 1973 he had twice recommended Wallace for the MBE, and could not understand how and why the recommendations were turned down. "I've never known such a deserving case," he told journalist Paul Foot.

In 1987 Wallace appeared on the first programme of the Channel 4 discussion series After Dark alongside Clive Ponting, T. E. Utley, Peter Hain and others.

In 2020 a documentary was produced on the life of Colin Wallace, The Man Who Knew Too Much. As of 2021 this film was available on YouTube.

To this day, Wallace's full role on behalf of the Army remains a mystery. Former members of the Special Forces admit that Wallace worked with them as far afield as Berlin and the Oman during the Cold War, but the Ministry of Defence and the Intelligence Services still try to distance themselves from what Wallace was doing in Northern Ireland. He had been part of the Army team preparing for the Widgery Tribunal into the Bloody Sunday killings of protesters in Derry, and in 2002 he testified at the Saville Inquiry into the events. One of Wallace's close friends in the Army described him as follows: "I played golf with the General. That was an accident. Colin was needed by the General. Everyone needed him. They just could not do without him." Lieutenant Colonel Tony Yarnold, who worked with Wallace in Northern Ireland, said: "Let's face it, Colin was the lynchpin of the whole operation. He was terrific way ahead of us all in his knowledge and his readiness to work. Everyone wanted him all the time, and somehow he was always available." A former Ministry of Defence Chief Information Officer commented: "For loyalty and dedication to the Army, Colin Wallace was in a class of his own. I just cannot conceive of any situation in which he would act maliciously against the interests of the Crown or the Army."