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Chief Of The Secret Intelligence Service
The chief of the Secret Intelligence Service serves as the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also commonly known as MI6), which is part of the United Kingdom intelligence community. The chief is appointed by the foreign secretary, to whom they report directly. Annual reports are also made to the prime minister. The chief of the Secret Intelligence Service typically signs letters with a "C" in green ink. This originates from the initial used by Captain Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming, when he signed a letter "C" in green ink. Since then the chief has been known as "C". History From 1782 until 1909, British intelligence at the government level was handled directly by the Foreign Office, with the Army and Navy also maintaining their own intelligence branches. By 1909, growing tensions with Germany led the Committee of Imperial Defence to recommend the creation of the Secret Service Bureau to provide organization and leadership to the intelligence-gathering process as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Richard Moore (diplomat)
Richard Peter Moore (born 9 May 1963) is a British civil servant, currently chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and formerly Director General for Political Affairs, at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, and previously the British ambassador to Turkey. In 2020, Moore became the first member of the British intelligence agencies to use social media publicly. Education Moore attended St George's College, Weybridge, an independent school in Surrey. Afterwards, he studied philosophy, politics and economics at Worcester College, Oxford where he gained a Bachelor of Arts. He then won a Kennedy Scholarship to study at the Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University. In 2007, he attended the Stanford Executive Program. Career Moore's notable career has been in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) and in His Majesty's Diplomatic Service. He has had postings in Vietnam in 1988, Turkey in 1990 and from 1991 to 1992, Pakistan from 1995 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Official Secrets Act
An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security but in unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secrets Act 1911) can include all information held by government bodies. OSAs are currently in-force in over 40 countries (mostly former British colonies) including Bangladesh, Kenya, Pakistan, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Myanmar, Uganda, Malaysia, Singapore and the United Kingdom, and have previously existed in Canada and New Zealand. There were earlier English and British precedents, long before the acts enumerated here. As early as the 16th Century, following Francis Drake's circumnavigation, Queen Elizabeth I declared that all written accounts of Drake's voyages were to become the 'Queen's secrets of the Realm'. In addition, Drake and the other participants of his voyages were sworn to their secrecy on the pain of death; the Queen intended to keep Drake's activities away f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin McColl
Sir Colin Hugh Verel McColl, (born 6 September 1932) was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1989 to 1994. Career Educated at Shrewsbury School and at The Queen's College, Oxford, McColl joined the diplomatic service in 1950. He served in Laos, Vietnam, Warsaw and Geneva before he was appointed Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 1989. In retirement he was a Director of the Scottish American Investment Company The Scottish American Investment Company is a publicly traded investment trust. It invests in a broad range of UK and international assets. The Scottish American Investment Company is managed by Baillie Gifford & Co Limited, the Edinburgh-based .... In 1996 he was appointed an Honorary Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford. References 1932 births Cold War spies Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Alumni of The Queen's College, Oxford Fellows of The Queen's College, Oxford Post–Cold War spies Liv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Curwen
Sir Christopher Keith Curwen, (9 April 1929 – 18 December 2013) was a British Intelligence officer specialising in South East Asia who was Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1985 to 1989. Career Curwen was educated at Sherborne School and Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge after which he was commissioned into the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1948, serving in Malaya. He joined SIS in 1952 and was posted to Thailand in 1954 and Vientiane, Laos in 1956. He returned to the service's London headquarters in 1958, had another spell in Bangkok from 1961 and then two years in Kuala Lumpur. He was at one time married to a woman from South-East Asia; they were later divorced. Curwen spent three years as SIS liaison officer in Washington D.C. from 1968 and was then head of station in Geneva. He was deputy to Sir Colin Figures from 1980 and succeeded him as Chief of the Service in 1985. His tenure was notable for the successful exfiltration from Moscow of the KGB officer ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Colin Figures
Sir Colin Frederick Figures (1 July 1925 – 8 December 2006) was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (known as MI6) from 1981 to 1985. During this time he had oversight of the supply of human intelligence information, including Argentine positions and their stocks of Exocet missiles, to the UK Government during the Falklands War. Career Figures was born in Birmingham, the son of Frederick Figures, an insurance executive, and his wife Muriel.Obituary: Sir Colin Figures The Independent, 29 December 2006 He was educated at and served in |
Dick Franks
Sir Arthur Temple "Dick" Franks (13 July 1920 – 12 October 2008) was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service from 1979 to 1982. Career Educated at Rugby School and Queen's College, Oxford, Franks was commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals in 1940. He became an Intelligence officer in the Western Desert and then joined the Special Operations Executive. He started his career by "earning a reputation for daring military exploits against Nazi Germany before pursuing a fruitful career on Her Majesty’s secret service." After the War he briefly worked for the ''Daily Mirror'' before joining the Secret Intelligence Service in 1946. He became involved in Operation Boot, a plan to overthrow Mohammad Mosaddegh, the nationalistic Iranian Prime Minister in 1953. He was posted to Bonn in 1962 and was promoted to Deputy Chief in 1977. He was appointed Chief of the Service in 1978, in place of Brian Stewart, the Director of Support Services. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maurice Oldfield
Sir Maurice Oldfield (16 November 1915 – 11 March 1981) was a British intelligence officer and espionage administrator. He served as the seventh director of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), from 1973 to 1978. Early life Oldfield was born on 16 November 1915 at his grandmother's farm just outside Youlgrave, a village in Derbyshire. He grew up at a house called Mona View in Over Haddon. He was the first of 11 children of Joseph Oldfield, tenant farmer, and his wife, Ada Annie Dicken. He was educated at Lady Manners School at the nearby market town of Bakewell, before winning a scholarship to the Victoria University of Manchester, where he stayed at Hulme Hall. There, he studied under the historian A. J. P. Taylor and specialised in medieval history. He graduated with a first class degree and was elected to a fellowship. Intelligence career During the Second World War, Oldfield joined the British Army. Initially a sergeant in Army Field Security (which was absorbed in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Rennie (MI6 Officer)
Sir John Ogilvy Rennie, (13 January 1914 – 30 September 1981) was the 6th Director of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1968 to 1973. He was once the head of the Information Research Department (IRD), a secret branch of the UK Foreign Office dedicated to pro-colonial and anti-communist propaganda during the Cold War. Career Educated at Wellington College and Balliol College, Oxford, Rennie joined an advertising agency in New York City in 1935. During World War II he worked at an organisation in Baltimore combating German propaganda. In 1946 he joined the Foreign Office and was posted to Washington D.C. and then to Warsaw. In 1953 he was appointed Head of the Information Research Department, a controversial body established to disseminate information about the dangers of Soviet-style communism. During the Suez Crisis he chaired a committee established to disseminate British propaganda in the Middle East. He was posted to Buenos Aires in 1958 and Washington D.C. in 196 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dick White
Sir Dick Goldsmith White, (20 December 1906 – 21 February 1993) was a British intelligence officer. He was Director General (DG) of MI5 from 1953 to 1956, and Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1956 to 1968. Early life White was born in Tonbridge, Kent, the son of an ironmonger Percy Hall White and Gertrude Farthing and went to school at Bishop's Stortford College. He took a First Class Degree in History at Christ Church, Oxford in 1927, and learnt to speak German. He was athletic in his youth and obtained a blue in running at Oxford. He was described by Peter Wright as resembling David Niven: "the same perfect English manners, easy charm, and immaculate dress sense." He was, said Wright, "tall with lean, healthy features and a sharp eye". He would qualify for a Commonwealth Fellowship in 1928 which saw him seek further education in the United States at the University of Michigan and California. After returning to the UK, he failed to obtain a position at ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Sinclair (British Army Officer)
Sir John Alexander Sinclair, (29 May 1897 – 22 March 1977) was a British Army general who was head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) from 1953 to 1956. Career Sinclair was the second son of a Church of England priest, John Sinclair. He was educated at West Downs School, Winchester, and the Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth. He served in the Royal Navy during World War I but had to leave the Navy due to ill health. At the end of the war he transferred to the army and after training at Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery. In 1938 he was appointed an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley. By 1941 he was Deputy Director of Operations at the War Office and then in 1942 he became Commander Royal Artillery for 1st Division. In 1944 he was appointed Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office. In 1946, while still in the army, he started working for the SIS. Following his retirement from the military in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Major-General (United Kingdom)
Major general (Maj Gen) is a "two-star" rank in the British Army and Royal Marines. The rank was also briefly used by the Royal Air Force for a year and a half, from its creation to August 1919. In the British Army, a major general is the customary rank for the appointment of division commander. In the Royal Marines, the rank of major general is held by the Commandant General. A Major General is senior to a Brigadier but subordinate to lieutenant general. The rank is OF-7 on the NATO rank scale, equivalent to a rear admiral in the Royal Navy or an air vice-marshal in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many Commonwealth countries. The rank insignia is the star (or 'pip') of the Order of the Bath, over a crossed sword and baton. In terms of orthography, compound ranks were invariably hyphenated, prior to about 1980. Nowadays the rank is almost equally invariably non-hyphenated. When written as a title, especially before a person's name, both words of the rank are alw ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Admiral (Royal Navy)
Admiral is a senior rank of the Royal Navy, which equates to the NATO rank code OF-9, outranked only by the rank of admiral of the fleet. Royal Navy officers holding the ranks of rear admiral, vice admiral and admiral of the fleet are sometimes considered generically to be admirals. The rank of admiral is currently the highest rank to which a serving officer in the Royal Navy can be promoted, admiral of the fleet being in abeyance except for honorary promotions of retired officers and members of the Royal Family. The equivalent rank in the British Army and Royal Marines is general; and in the Royal Air Force, it is air chief marshal. History The first admirals (1224 to 1523) King Henry III of England appointed the first known English Admiral Sir Richard de Lucy on 29 August 1224. De Lucy was followed by Sir Thomas Moulton in 1264, who also held the title of ''Keeper of the Sea and Sea Ports''. Moulton was succeeded by Sir William de Leybourne, (the son of Sir Roger de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
