Ronnie Cornwell
Ronald Thomas Archibald Cornwell, was a British businessman and arms dealer. He left school at the age of 14 and turned to business and later briefly to politics. He was unsuccessful in both fields. He became best known as the father of the author John le Carré.
His business dealings often skirted the edge of legality and resulted in several prison sentences. Cornwell appeared in the English press several times in connection with criminal and appeal proceedings in English courts: first in 1934, then in 1954. In 1934, he was imprisoned for six months for embezzlement and fraud.
Early life
Cornwell was born in Upper Parkstone, Dorset in 1905 and left school at the age of 14.Career
The Times reported on 15 October 1954 on the “man who had set up 60 property companies” who was facing bankruptcy due to debts exceeding £1 million. The trial ended with a guilty verdict and imprisonment.In the 1960s, Cornwell operated as an arms dealer from London and visited East Germany several times in this capacity. He was a known short-term visitor to East Germany for the Stasi. An internal document from the Ministry for State Security, for example, records Ronald Cornwell's 24-hour stay in East Berlin on April 12, 1963. A Stasi officer noted in handwriting that Cornwell was the general representative of "Trans World Trade Ltd., Hong Kong," with an office at 25 Jermyn Street in London, and described him as divorced, approximately 175 cm tall, and stocky.
“C. is involved in arms dealing on behalf of the British government. He has ties to ISIS. is very rich. He has extensive connections. His son is a former diplomat and now lives in London as a writer, writing under the pseudonym “John le Carré.” Both father and son are politically uninterested.”