In World War II, Barbara Skelton was recruited into the Foreign Office as a cipher clerk by Donald Maclean, a diplomat who unknown to her was a Soviet spy. In 1942, she was assigned to the British embassy in Cairo, where at the Auberge des Pyramides night club, she first met King Farouk, who was throwing bread balls at the patrons. In April 1943, Skelton replaced Irene Guinle as Farouk's "official mistress". Skelton called Farouk "a complete philistine", but also funny and amusing. She stated about Farouk: "He was very adolescent. He didn't have the stuff to be a great king, he was too childish. But he never lost his temper, he was incredibly sweet, with a good sense of humor. He wasn't a grand passion, but I was bored to death with all the British officers I knew in Cairo. Life in the palace with Farouk was not boring". In 1945, the ambassador, Sir Miles Lampson, decided that Skelton was a security risk, believing that she was leaking information to Farouk, and she was reassigned to the embassy in Athens. Of these allegations, Skelton stated: "After all, I was in a sensitive position, and they were convinced that Farouk was settling me up just to get information from me. What they could never understand was that Farouk couldn't have cared less. The only communications to England that mattered to him were his telexes ordering silk neckties from Hawes and Curtis. There was absolutely nothing political about him then". Farouk encouraged Skelton to run up a large bill with dressmakers, promising her he would pay for it all, which he did not when she informed him that she was being reassigned to Athens, leading her to say he was "staggering cheap". Later years found her in Yugoslavia, Egypt, the United States, Cuba and back in England. She lived for many years in France before returning to England where she died in 1996.