According to my fallible memory and the probably more reliable wiki article [0] Q was based on Charles Fraser Smith, who came up with "Q devices". So this might be a feedback loop between art and life. Assuming that "Q" really is called "Q" internally, and that's not just publicity / misdirection...

I can recommend CFS's book "The Secret War of Charles Fraser-Smith" about his wartime experiences in sourcing and creating items for clandestine operations. Likely of interest to many HN readers.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Q_(James_Bond)

His elder brother Peter's ideas around "irregular warfare" influenced Colin Gubbins who led SOE:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fleming_(writer)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colin_Gubbins

Presumably the M name was inspired by C, the nickname given to the mi6 chief in real life.

The C comes from that being what the first chief of mi6 used to sign, his surname was Smith-Cumming. Interestingly, he also famously said, after it was discovered that human semen works well as invisible ink, that "Every man his own stylo" - rather appropriate for a man named Cumming.

edit: wiki says that staff under him used that phrase, I'm not 100% sure he coined it or not. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mansfield_Smith-Cumming