If we take lilliburlero's, "Mightn't 'local disappointment' actually in fact code 'Good War; psychological wreck, poor chap'?" and assume that Anquetil did come back to recover from a bad war. [And use, if I may, Chapter 9, to give credence to this idea. When Whittier brings up the many casualties in Operation Fireweed (which we then learn led to many casualties); we get, "Yes, Anquetil remembered." In which I have always read an implication of suppressed emotion about this which could be lost friends/PTSD and part of his bad war.]
Perhaps: after the War, Intelligence had hoped he would continue in active service. However Robert (or someone) recognised he couldn't do that immediately. Coming back to look after his father provided an way of Intelligence tacitly giving him the recovery time he needed without having to acknowledge he needed it. So he has a low profile both locally and with the Intelligence Service until "About a year ago", when it was realised that stuff was going on in the are. Then somebody remembered Anquetil was still there and invited him up to the Admiralty to see if he was up to some active work. He was filled in, rather as he filled Whittier in (& had Ida Cross pointed out to him) and his life in Intelligence resumed. In a sense he was friendly sleeper for MI5?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2014-07-02 11:53 pm (UTC)Perhaps: after the War, Intelligence had hoped he would continue in active service. However Robert (or someone) recognised he couldn't do that immediately. Coming back to look after his father provided an way of Intelligence tacitly giving him the recovery time he needed without having to acknowledge he needed it. So he has a low profile both locally and with the Intelligence Service until "About a year ago", when it was realised that stuff was going on in the are. Then somebody remembered Anquetil was still there and invited him up to the Admiralty to see if he was up to some active work. He was filled in, rather as he filled Whittier in (& had Ida Cross pointed out to him) and his life in Intelligence resumed. In a sense he was friendly sleeper for MI5?
Would that help your timeline?