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This is Fleming writing not Le Carré.

He was in the war though. The majority of guys who fought probably lost their virginity during the war to a prostitute. You're facing death every day, you might as well.

He was but he wasn't a front line soldier, as far as I know his role was initially bureaucratic, then later operations planning.

In period fiction, I have seen a few times a father or other older male taking someone to a prostitute to lose their virginity. Common enough that it can't come from nowhere. Sometimes they watch. It is almost always shown as traumatic.

The buggery angle is also viable.