JOHN STEEL

       John Steel is an agent with British Military Intelligence.
       [I really know so little as yet about Steel, largely because his recorded adventures are very hard to get hold of. The small amount I do know comes largely from other sources on the web.]
       Steel was for several years a police officer in London. He must have been good at his job because he reached the rank of sergeant at what seems to be a relatively young age (he looks to be in his early 30's to me in the pictures of his first missions). But his age would have been sufficiently high to cause the Royal Army to turn him away when in 1939 and the outbreak of World War II, he tried to enlist and was denied.
       That did not stop this determined man from finding other avenues for service and soon MI-5 decided they liked what they saw and gave him a chance. [While one source said MI-5, since the missions Steel would do for whomever took him all over Europe and thus outside the U.K. proper, I wonder.]
       Steel would have many harrowing adventures during those War years and barely escaped death on many occassions.
       When the War came to its end, Steel decided he did not want to return to the police force and instead started his own private investigative company. It would seem obvious from the locales these new types of missions, recorded in "Casebooks", took place in that his experiences during the War and the contacts he made doing them would come in handy in getting business. Steel would remain quite busy for some time. Certainly the names of some of the casebooks gives the definite impression his connection to British Intelligence, whichever group he worked with, remained a good one.

       I could not get my hands on any of the adventures of Steel while he was fighting Nazis during WWII but I did read several when the War was over and he was still operating for MI-5, making the move to being a private eye. They were very well written with good, solid plots, nasty characters who decidedly needed thumpin', and some support people worthy of interest.
       Whoever was doing the writing knew what he was doing and the artwork, black and white, was very well done. I can see why he held on as long as he did because a John Steel - Special Agent story was a lock on a good tale worth the half-hour to read it.