Stephen Ward Drawing Of Christine Keeler

Hidden for 50 years: Secret Profumo scandal portraits that humble clerk defied order to dispose of revealed here for first time

Sketches include portraits of 14 sitters, including showgirl Christine Keeler
Images drawn by Stephen Ward, the 'fixer' in the 1960s scandal
His lawyers ordered for them to be removed from public view
But a clerk of the law firm secretly gave them to a friend for safe keeping

Published: 21:58 GMT, 11 May 2013 | Updated: 01:13 GMT, 12 May 2013

A set of portraits drawn by one of the key figures in the Profumo Affair has been discovered – 50 years after they were 'disposed of'.

The pictures were drawn by Stephen Ward, the 'fixer' in the 1960s scandal who was accused of introducing Minister of War John Profumo to showgirl Christine Keeler.

The pair enjoyed an illicit affair but after Keeler was subsequently discovered to be sleeping with Russian naval attaché Yevgeny Ivanov, Profumo was forced to resign from the Cabinet and Ward was prosecuted for living off the immoral earnings of prostitution.

One of the works of art by osteopath Stephen Ward who committed suicide during the Profumo affair in the early 1960s

A Stephen Ward portrait said to be Mandy Rice-Davies

Portraits: Christine Keeler has identified the picture on the left as a portrait of her. The right portrait is said to be of Mandy Rice-Davies. The pictures were drawn by Stephen Ward, the 'fixer' in the 1960s scandal

Leaving court: Christine Keeler (right) with Mandy Rice-Davies (left) leaving the Old Bailey when Stephen Ward was on trial facing vice charges

Lawyers acting for Ward, who committed suicide in 1963 while on trial, considered the portraits sensitive and gave orders for them to be removed from public view.

But the artworks, which are reproduced today for the very first time, survived because the clerk of the now-defunct law firm M. A. Jacobs & Sons secretly gave them to one of his best friends for safe keeping.

The distinctive pencil, chalk and charcoal sketches include portraits of 14 sitters, including Keeler and Ivanov.

Keeler, who has studied the portraits on behalf of The Mail on Sunday, last night identified a picture of a young woman with her hair in a bun as a portrait of her.

Other sitters are believed to include Profumo and Mandy Rice-Davies, a friend of both Ward and Keeler who had a string of affairs with high-profile figures of the day.

Ward, who met many of his portrait subjects through his work as a high society osteopath, was instrumental in introducing some of the key players in the controversy to each other and was at the infamous party at Lord Astor's Cliveden estate where Keeler, who was just 19 at the time, met Profumo.

All smiles: Stephen Ward with Christine Keeler in 1963

A drawing by Stephen Ward featuring a mystery model

All smiles: Stephen Ward with Christine Keeler in 1963 (left) and one of his drawings, featuring a mystery model (right)

John Profumo

Christine Keeler

Scandal: Mr Ward, the 'fixer' in the 1960s scandal, was accused of introducing Minister of War John Profumo (left) to showgirl Christine Keeler (right)

A besotted Profumo, who was then married to actress Valerie Hobson, had no idea Keeler was also sleeping with Ivanov.

Ward, who prior to the scandal had been one of the best connected people in London and counted Prince Philip, Princess Margaret, Harold Macmillan and Sophia Loren among his friends, quickly became the scapegoat for the affair.

He took an overdose on the day before his trial ended. He was still in a coma on July 31 when the jury found him guilty and he died on August 3, 1963.

It is believed the portraits may have been destined for an exhibition at the now-defunct Museum Street Galleries in London's West End.

Artist: Lawyers acting for Ward (pictured), who committed suicide in 1963 while on trial, considered the portraits sensitive and gave orders for them to be removed from public view

At the time of his trial, Ward was represented by flamboyant celebrity lawyer David Jacobs.

It is believed that Jacobs ordered his clerk Eddie Marks to get rid of the portraits. But Marks instead decided to give the works to his friend George Olaf Spanswick, an avid art collector. Spanswick died in 1988 but his family held on to the sketches.

His daughter Carolyn Bartlett said: 'Eddie decided to get rid of the sketches but did it in his own way. He knew my father would look after them.'

Stephen Dorril, who wrote the book Honeytrap about the Profumo Affair, said: 'It is quite likely these pictures were among those which were to be shown at the Museum Street Galleries exhibition.'

Shunned and smeared, he'd become a fantasist

By Walter Harris

Talented: Stephen Ward's illustrations had attracted the attention of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who gave unique permission for Ward to draw MPs in session in the Commons

On a spring evening in 1960, I went to dinner at a small nightclub called The Paint Box in Foley Street, one of a tangle of narrow thoroughfares between Broadcasting House and Great Titchfield Street in London.

The club had a semi-circular stage, around the perimeter of which hung a red curtain. In front of the stage were half a dozen easels, with paper and crayons. The curtain would draw back to reveal a nude sitter in a chair.

The club was managed by a tiny model, Adele de Havilland, who tried to increase her height with a beehive hairdo and stiletto heels. On this particular evening, there was only one man sitting at an easel, whose portrait of the model was remarkably accurate. I commented on it to Adele.

'Oh, that's Stephen Ward; he's getting quite well known as an artist. Would you like to meet him?'

'Yes please.' She fetched him and, after the introduction, left us to sit down over a drink. Ward had hair brushed straight back, a soft voice and great charm. His talent as an osteopath had brought him patients from the upper reaches of society.

His illustrations had attracted the attention of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, who as a consequence gave unique permission for Ward to draw MPs in session in the Commons. Ward and I had dinner and became friends, often meeting for coffee.

When a distinguished journalist of the day, Brian Inglis, needed an osteopath to review a chapter of a new book on homeopathy he was writing, I suggested Stephen Ward.

'I've never heard of him, but do bring him round for lunch.'

The three of us had an omelette and a flagon of burgundy, and Stephen took away the chapter for checking. Not long afterwards, he invited me to the first night of an exhibition of his drawings at the Leggatt Brothers' Gallery in Jermyn Street, mounted as a reward after he healed the neck of one of the brothers which had been broken in a riding accident.

Among the sitters attending the exhibition I remember Robert Boothby, who had had a prolonged affair with Lady Dorothy Macmillan, the Prime Minister's wife; Duncan Sandys, Churchill's son-in-law and Secretary of State for Defence; and the Conservative MP for Lewes, Major Tufton Beamish. All of them greeted Ward as a friend, the aloof Sandys putting an arm round him.

Affair: John Profumo, the newly-appointed Secretary of State for War at the War Office before the scandal of his affair with call-girl Christine Keeler

Then the Profumo Affair hit the headlines, and they, together with the rest of Ward's society 'friends', were gone, the shelves in his consultancy empty of invitations.

Inglis, Ward and I had one more lunch together, at a restaurant in Manchester Square. It was obvious that 'Bovine' Henry Brooke, the Home Secretary, was intent on framing Stephen Ward as a pimp and a Russian spy.

'Stephen, what really happened? I'll guarantee you any organ of communication – the BBC, The Times, the Sunday Despatch – to put your side of the case.'

Ward, however, had become a fantasist. 'Dear boy, England's a brothel and Macmillan's the madame. I'm acting as liaison between Macmillan, Kennedy and Khrushchev in the cause of peace.'

He chuckled; Inglis shrugged in despair. There was now no way to cleanse the smears, no way to win back any social status and no way to deflect the inevitable.

Three days after our final lunch, Ward was arrested, and six weeks later died by his own hand.