From Fitzroy's Private Diary (Extract 17)

Killing leaves its mark on a man. To kill another is not a natural instinct. Passions can run high and one man may hurt another but setting out to take a life is no easy task. In the Great War we saw many men, on both sides, though in fear of death themselves, refuse to shoot straight at the other side. They fired above the trenches, intent on missing their targets.

So began a new initiative. The soldiers, via propaganda, were encouraged to think of the enemy not as men, but as ‘others.’ Others, who would invade their country, defile their women, kill their children, and in general behave in every way that a decent Englishman would find abhorrent. The aim was to utterly dehumanise the enemy, to the extent that a man did could not, would not, object to killing them. War is a dirty business.

Spies, however, are far more likely to have to kill face to face, even hand to hand. I don’t like it and anyone who does bothers me immensely. There have been a few like that in service to the Crown, but for my part I have always tried to keep them on a tight leash. I believe there are occasions when killing is the neatest solution - in terms of preventing a far greater loss of human life. When it needs to be done it should be done so professionally and with as little fallout or mess as possible.

There are also times when an individual has gone so awry from being a decent human being that only the grace of God can save them and so we expedite their return to him.