Ted Allbeury

{{short description|British writer}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}

{{EngvarB|date=February 2020}}

{{Infobox person

|name = Ted Allbeury

|image = Theodore Edward le Bouthillier ('Ted') Allbeury.jpg

|caption = Allbeury in 1980.

|birth_date = 24 October 1917

|birth_place = Stockport, Cheshire, England (now Greater Manchester)

|death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2005|12|4|1917|10|24}}

|death_place = Tunbridge Wells, Kent, England

| nationality =

| education =

| occupation =

| known for =

| spouse = Grazyna (d.1999)

| children = 4

| relatives =

| website =

}}

Theodore Edward le Bouthillier Allbeury (24 October 1917 – 4 December 2005) was a British author of espionage fiction.{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ted-allbeury-519507.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ted-allbeury-519507.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Ted Allbeury – Obituaries|author=Adrian, Jack|date=15 December 2005|work=The Independent|accessdate=10 July 2019}}{{cite news|title=Of Spies And Traitors|author=Winks, Robin W.|date=4 July 2019|newspaper=The Washington Post|page=X1}}{{cite book|author=Britton, Wesley Alan|title=Beyond Bond: Spies In Fiction And Film|year=2005|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=9780275985561|pages=159–}} He was an intelligence officer in the Special Operations Executive between 1940 and 1947, reaching the rank of lieutenant colonel. He is believed to be the only British secret agent to have parachuted into Nazi Germany during the war, remaining there until the Allied armies arrived. During the Cold War he was captured and tortured when running agents across the border between East and West Germany. After running his own advertising agency, he became managing director of the seafort-based pirate radio station Radio 390 in 1964, later moving to the ship-based Radio 355 until its closure in August 1967.{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jan/03/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries|title=Obituary: Ted Allbeury|work=The Guardian|date=3 January 2006 |accessdate=10 July 2019}}{{cite book|author=Johns, Adrian|author-link=Adrian Johns (academic)|title=Death of a Pirate: British Radio and the Making of the Information Age|date=8 November 2010|publisher=W. W. Norton & Company|isbn=9780393068603|pages=[https://archive.org/details/deathofpiratebri0000john/page/167 167–]|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/deathofpiratebri0000john/page/167}}

Allbeury's first novel, A Choice of Enemies, was published in 1972.{{cite news|title=Criminals at Large – Review|date=2 June 1974|work=The New York Times|page=BR357}} He went on to publish over 40 novels, under the names Patrick Kelly, Richard Butler, and his own.{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2006/jan/03/guardianobituaries.booksobituaries|title=Obituary: Ted Allbeury|author=Johnson, Michael|date=2 January 2006|work=The Guardian|accessdate=10 July 2019}}