The Naval Intelligence Division (NID) was created as a component part of the

Admiralty War Staff The Admiralty War Staff was the former senior naval staff operational planning organisation within the British Admiralty that existed from 1912 to 1917. It was instituted on 8 January 1912 by Winston Churchill in his capacity as First Lord of ...

in 1912. It was the intelligence arm of the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Admiralty Admiralty most often refers to: *Admiralty, Hong Kong *Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964 *The rank of admiral *Admiralty law Admiralty can also refer to: Buildings * Admiralty, Traf ...

before the establishment of a unified

Defence Intelligence Staff Defence Intelligence (DI) is an organisation within the United Kingdom intelligence community which focuses on gathering and analysing military intelligence. It differs from the UK's intelligence agencies (MI6, GCHQ and MI5) in that it is an ...

in 1964. It dealt with matters concerning British naval plans, with the collection of

naval intelligence Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...

. It was also known as "Room 39", after its room number at the Admiralty.

History

The Foreign Intelligence Committee was established in 1882 and it evolved into the Naval Intelligence Department in 1887. The NID staff were originally responsible for fleet mobilisation and war plans as well as foreign intelligence collection; thus in the beginning there were originally two divisions: (1) intelligence (Foreign) and (2) Mobilisation. In 1900 another division, War, was added to deal with issues of strategy and defence, and in 1902 a fourth division, Trade, was created for matters related to the protection of merchant shipping. The Trade Division was abolished in October 1909 in the wake of the Committee of Imperial Defence inquiry into the feud between the

First Sea Lord The First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS) is the military head of the Royal Navy and Naval Service of the United Kingdom. The First Sea Lord is usually the highest ranking and most senior admiral to serve in the British Armed ...

, Admiral Sir John Fisher and former Commander-in-Chief

Channel Fleet The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915. History Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history the ...

, Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, when it was discovered that the captain heading the Trade Division had been supplying the latter with confidential information during the inquiry. In 1910, the NID was shorn of its responsibility for war planning and strategy when the outgoing Fisher created the Navy War Council as a stop-gap remedy to criticisms emanating from the Beresford Inquiry that the Navy needed a naval staff—a role the NID had been in fact fulfilling since at least 1900, if not earlier. After this reorganisation, war planning and strategic matters were transferred to the newly created Naval Mobilisation Department and the NID reverted to the position it held prior to 1887—an intelligence collection and collation organisation. In 1912 the division was established as a component part of the new

organisation when that body was abolished in 1917 it continued as a division of the new

Admiralty Naval Staff The Admiralty Naval Staff was the former senior command, operational planning, policy and strategy department within the British Admiralty. It was established in 1917 and existed until 1964 when the department of the Admiralty was abolished. It wa ...

until 1964 when the Admiralty Department was abolished.

World War I

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the NID was responsible for the Royal Navy's highly successful cryptographic efforts, ''

Room 40 Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War. The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...

''. The interception and decoding of the Zimmermann Telegram played a role in bringing the United States into the War. It has described as the most significant intelligence triumph for Britain during World War I, and one of the first occasions on which a piece of signals intelligence influenced world events.

World War II

Naval

Ultra adopted by British military intelligence in June 1941 for wartime signals intelligence obtained by breaking high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications at the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park. '' ...

messages were handled differently from Army and Air Force Ultra because the Admiralty was an operational HQ and could give orders during a battle; while the Imperial General Staff (Army) and Air Staff would give commanders general orders such as, "clear the enemy out of Africa" without telling them how to do it. Hence verbatim translations of naval decodes were sent by

Hut 4 Hut 4 was a wartime section of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park tasked with the translation, interpretation and distribution of '' Kriegsmarine'' (German navy) messages deciphered by Hut 8. The messages were largely ...

to the NID and nowhere else (except for some naval intelligence sent directly from

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

to Commanders-in-Chief in the Mediterranean).

Hut 8 Hut 8 was a section in the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park (the British World War II codebreaking station, located in Buckinghamshire) tasked with solving German naval (Kriegsmarine) Enigma messages. The section was l ...

which decrypted

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

messages for

to translate and analyse had less information for

as the Kriegsmarine operated Enigma more securely than the German Army and Air Force. Hut 4 also broke various hand cyphers and some Italian naval traffic. The NID also initiated the

30th Assault Unit No. 30 Commando, from 1943 to 1946 known as 30 Assault Unit, was a British Commando unit during the Second World War, originally formed to gather intelligence. History Formation In a 2012 documentary Dieppe Uncovered, Canadian Professor David ...

whose role was information gathering,

reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, terrain, and other activities. Examples of reconnaissance include patrolling by troops (skirmisher ...

and

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction. One who engages in sabotage is a ''saboteur''. Saboteurs typically try to conceal their identitie ...

. Members of the unit, including

Ralph Izzard Ralph William Burdick Izzard, OBE (27 August 1910 – 2 December 1992) was an English journalist, author, adventurer and, during World War II, a British Naval Intelligence officer.''The Independent''Obituary – Ralph Izzard, 14 December 1 ...

, are acknowledged as inspirations for

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer who is best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., a ...

(who also worked for the NID) in the creation of his fictional spy,

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 1964, eight other authors have ...

.Pearson, p. 194-195

Geographical section

The Geographical Section of the Naval Intelligence Division, Naval Staff, Admiralty, produced a series of Geographical Handbooks from 1917-1922 to provide information for the

British Armed Forces The British Armed Forces, also known as His Majesty's Armed Forces, are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, s ...

. The ''Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook Series'' was produced between 1941 and 1946 to provide information for the British Armed Forces.

Amalgamation

In 1965, the three service intelligence departments were amalgamated in the new Defence Intelligence Service at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

. However, well before the mid-1990s another Royal Naval branch existed, namely the Directorate of Naval Security & Integrated Contingency Planning (DNSyICP), which is based at HM Naval Base Portsmouth under the staff command of the Second Sea Lord & C-in-C Naval Home Command.

Directors of Naval Intelligence

Directors of Naval Intelligence included: * Rear-Admiral Lewis Beaumont, 1895–1899 * Rear-Admiral Reginald Custance, 1899–1902 * Rear-Admiral Prince Louis of Battenberg, 1902–1905 * Rear-Admiral Charles Ottley, 1905–1907 * Rear-Admiral Edmond Slade, 1907–1909 * Rear-Admiral Alexander Bethell, 1909–1912 * Captain Thomas Jackson, 1912–1913 * Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, 1913–1914 * Rear-Admiral Sir Reginald 'Blinker' Hall, 1914–1919 * Rear-Admiral Hugh 'Quex' Sinclair, 1919–1921 * Rear-Admiral Maurice Fitzmaurice, 1921–1924 * Rear-Admiral Alan Hotham, 1924–1927 * Rear-Admiral William Fisher (Acting), 1926–1927 * Rear-Admiral Barry Domvile, 1927–1930 * Rear-Admiral Cecil Usborne, 1930–1932 * Rear-Admiral Gerald Dickens, 1932–1935 * Vice-Admiral James Troup, 1935–1939 * Rear-Admiral John Godfrey, 1939–1942 * Rear-Admiral Edmund Rushbrooke, 1942–1946 * Vice-Admiral Edward Parry, 1946–1948 * Rear-Admiral Eric Longley-Cook, 1948–1951 * Rear-Admiral Sir Anthony Buzzard, 1951–1954 * Vice-Admiral Sir John Inglis, 1954–1960 * Vice-Admiral Sir Norman Denning, 1960–1964 * Rear-Admiral Patrick Graham, 1964–1965

Deputy Directors of Naval Intelligence

Deputy Directors of Naval Intelligence included: * Raymond A. Nugent, 1918–January 1919 * William M. James, January 1919–March 1920 * Geoffrey Hopwood, March 1920–April 1922 * Edward O. Cochrane, April 1922–August 1923 * George K. Chetwode, August 1923–May 1925 * Kenneth G. B. Dewar, May 1925–June 1927 * Cecil B. Prickett, June 1927–June 1929 * Alfred E. Evans, June 1929–April 1930 * Gerald C. Harrison, April 1930–April 1932 * W. E. Campbell Tait, April 1932–November 1933 * George A. Scott, November 1933–December 1935 * the Hon. Claude P. Hermon-Hodge, December 1935–February 1938 * Geoffrey C. Cooke, February 1938–February 1940 * William D. Stephens, February 1940–January 1941 * Ian M. R. Campbell, February 1941–April 1942 * Charles A. G. Nichols, April 1942–May 1944 * Ian M. R. Campbell, May 1944 – 1945 * A. Joe Baker-Cresswell, March 1948–March 1951 * Thomas J. N. Hilken, March 1951–November 1953 * Charles E. Keys, November 1953–January 1956 * George F. M. Best, January 1956–January 1958 * Nigel H. G. Austen, January 1958–September 1959 *

Anthony Davies Anthony Davies (born 2 December 1969) is a former Welsh professional snooker player. Davies started playing snooker aged 12. He made his first century break made aged 15 and his first maximum break aged 17. After winning a number of titles in ...

, September 1959–October 1962 * William P. B. Barber, October 1962 – 1965

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

30 Commando Assault Unit - Ian Fleming's 'Red Indians'
{{Authority control Admiralty during World War I Admiralty during World War II

Naval Intelligence Division (UK) The Naval Intelligence Division (NID) was created as a component part of the Admiralty War Staff in 1912. It was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Intelligence Staff in 1964. It dealt w ...

Military communications of the United Kingdom History of the Royal Navy World War I espionage World War II espionage Cold War espionage Military units and formations established in 1882 Military units and formations disestablished in 1962 1882 establishments in the United Kingdom 1962 disestablishments in the United Kingdom

British intelligence services of World War II