1959. Harvey had been forced to resign over a homosexual scandal in which he was found in flagrante delicto with a guardsman in St. James's Park. Courtney kept the seat in a by-election. Parliamentary career Courtney could be a rebellious MP. He opposed the 1961 Defence White Paper and called for replacement of the Royal Air Force's V-bomber force with a fleet of submarines. He supported corporal punishment. He was a consistent advocate of a strong Navy to counter the Soviet Union. In 1962, while on a business trip to Moscow, he demanded a personal visit to see Nikita Khrushchev over the case of Greville Wynne, a British businessman accused of spying by the Soviets. He often raised the issue of religious freedom in Russia. Scandal The 1964 general election cut Courtney's majority in Harrow East. In January and March 1965, anonymous letters including pictures of Courtney with Zina Volkova (a guide with Intourist, the Soviet tourist board) were sent to him and his stepson and Alec Douglas-Home, leader of the Conservative Party. The photographs dated from four years previously: Courtney's first wife, Elizabeth Stokes, had died of a heart attack on 1 March 1961, and he had a brief affair with Volkova during the British Industrial Exhibition in May. The letters with the photographs accused Courtney's wife of being unfaithful and urged him to resign before there was a public scandal. Courtney did nothing, and in the first week of August 1965, a further set of letters was sent to other MPs, a factory owner in Courtney's constituency, and to the News of the World newspaper (which declined to publish). Courtney had retained contacts with MI5, and went to see Roger Hollis; MI5 experts thought the photographs had been faked (as did Courtney himself), and presumed a KGB attempt to damage Courtney. The satirical magazine Private Eye did run the story (although it knew the KGB was behind it), but it was largely kept quiet; however, rumours did circulate in Harrow. He beat off an attempt to deselect him by 454 to 277, but Courtney lost his seat in the 1966 general election. Subsequent career Out of Parliament, Courtney sued a Conservative Party official and businessman, Sir Theodore Constantine, for slander arising out of a dinner party when Constantine had given his own view of the scandal. He won the case and was awarded £200 damages. However his second