Terrence Spencer was born
in 1918. He took an engineering degree at Birmingham University but
left on the outbreak of the Second World War.
He joined the Royal Air Force and flew Supermarine
Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane.
He eventually became commander of his squadron.
One one occasion he parachuted
out over the Baltic at 30ft above the water and once held the entry
in the Guinness Book of Records for the lowest parachute jump on record.
Later he was shot down and taken prisoner of war but managed to escape
back to England. He was also awarded the Distinguished
Flying Cross for his wartime achievements.
After the war he set up
a successful aerial photography business and met and married a London
stage and screen actress, Lesley Brook. The couple moved to South
Africa where he became involved in diamond smuggling. This involved
flying across the African borders with the diamonds hidden under the
front seat of his single-engine plane.
In 1952 Spencer began working
for Life
Magazine.
Over the next few years he covered stories all over the world. This
including Kenya, the Congo, Vietnam, Algeria, the Middle East, Cuba
and Indonesia. He also became involved in CIA covert activities such
as Operation
Tilt.
In 1962 Eddie Bayo (Eduardo Perez) claimed
that two officers in the Red Army based in
Cuba wanted to defect to the United
States. Bayo added that these men wanted to pass on details about
atomic warheads and missiles that were still in Cuba despite the agreement
that followed the Cuban Missile Crisis.
Bayo's story was eventually
taken up by several members of the anti-Castro community including
Nathaniel
Weyl,
William
Pawley, Gerry
P. Hemming,
John
Martino,
Felipe
Vidal Santiago
and Frank
Sturgis.
Pawley became convinced that it was vitally important to help get
these Soviet officers out of Cuba.
On 8th June, 1963, a small
group, including
William Pawley,
Eddie
Bayo,
Rip
Robertson,
Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio
Martinez,
John
Martino.
Richard Billings, a
journalist working for Life Magazine,
boarded a CIA flying boat. Spencer also went on the mission as the
photographer. After landing off Baracoa, Bayo and his men got into
a 22-foot craft and headed for the Cuban shore. The plan was to pick
them up with the Soviet officers two days later. However, Bayo and
his men were never seen again. It was
rumoured that he had been captured and executed. However, his death
was never reported in the Cuban press.
Terry
Spencer during Operation Tilt (1963)
Spencer he returned to
England to cover the Beatles and the 60s cults and fashions, and when
the magazine folded in 1972 he freelanced for The
New York Times and other US publications. He then began to
work for a new American magazine, People, which gave him the opportunity
of covering numerous UK pop groups, writers, and stage and screen
celebrities. He also sold his work through Camera Press in London.
Spencer is the author of
two books, It Was Thirty Years Ago Today
(1995) and Living Dangerously
(2002). He once told a journalist: "After surviving the Second
World War, I never worried about being killed in Vietnam or any other
war. I have never been afraid of death but I was always terrified
of being hurt or wounded and carried a hypodermic syringe of morphine
in my camera bag at all times. I've never even had a scratch in all
the wars I covered. The only time I was ever hurt was when I was attacked
by Paul McCartney after I discovered his hideaway in Scotland."
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