The Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) was a department of the British

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

. Over its lifetime the Directorate underwent a number of organisational changes, absorbing and shedding sections over time.

History

The first instance of an organisation which would later become the DMI was the Department of Topography & Statistics, formed by Major Thomas Best Jervis, late of the Bombay Engineer Corps, in 1854 in the early stages of the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

. In 1873 the Intelligence Branch was created within the Quartermaster General's Department with an initial staff of seven officers. Initially the Intelligence Branch was solely concerned with collecting intelligence, but under the leadership of

Henry Brackenbury General Sir Henry Brackenbury, (1 September 1837 – 20 April 1914) was a British Army officer who was assistant to Garnet Wolseley in the 1870s and became part of his ' Ring' of loyal officers. He also wrote several books of military history ...

, a protege of influential Adjutant-General Lord Wolseley, it was increasingly concerned with planning. However despite these steps towards a nascent general staff, the Intelligence Branch remained a purely advisory body, something that sharply limited its influence. The Branch was transferred to the Adjutant General's Department in 1888 and Brackenbury's title was changed to Director of Military Intelligence. After Wolseley's appointment as

Commander-in-Chief of the Forces The Commander-in-Chief of the Forces, later Commander-in-Chief, British Army, or just the Commander-in-Chief (C-in-C), was (intermittently) the professional head of the English Army from 1660 to 1707 (the English Army, founded in 1645, was succ ...

in 1895, he made the Director of Military Intelligence directly responsible to him. At the outbreak of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the So ...

in 1899 the Intelligence Branch had 13 officers. Prior to the war it produced a highly accurate summary of the Boer republics' military potential and was the only part of the War Office to escape criticism in the resulting Royal Commission. In the immediate aftermath of the Boer War the Intelligence Branch was enlarged and its head elevated to Director General of Mobilisation and Military Intelligence. Following the

Esher Report The Esher Report of 1904, chaired by Lord Esher, recommended radical reform of the British Army, such as the creation of an Army Council, General Staff and Chief of the General Staff and the abolition of the Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. The ...

in 1904 the War Office was dramatically reorganized. The post of Commander-in-Chief was abolished and replaced by the

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

. Planning and intelligence would be the responsibility of the Directorate of Military Operations. When the War Office was subsumed into 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 state ...

(MoD) in 1964, the DMI was absorbed into the Defence Intelligence Staff.

Sections

During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, British

secret service A secret service is a government agency, intelligence agency, or the activities of a government agency, concerned with the gathering of intelligence data. The tasks and powers of a secret service can vary greatly from one country to another. Fo ...

s were divided into numbered sections named ''Military Intelligence'', department number ''x'', abbreviated to MIx, such as MI1 for information management. The branch, department, section, and sub-section numbers varied through the life of the department; however, examples include: Two MI section-names remain in common use, MI5 and MI6, in most part due to their use in

spy fiction Spy fiction is a genre of literature involving espionage as an important context or plot device. It emerged in the early twentieth century, inspired by rivalries and intrigues between the major powers, and the establishment of modern intelligen ...

and the news media. " MI5" is used as the short form name of the Security Service, and is included in the agency's logo and web address. MI6 is included as an alias on the

Secret Intelligence Service The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intellige ...

website, though the official abbreviation, SIS, is predominant. While the names remain, the agencies are now responsible to different departments of state, MI5 to the Home Office, and MI6 the

Foreign Office Foreign may refer to: Government * Foreign policy, how a country interacts with other countries * Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in many countries ** Foreign Office, a department of the UK government ** Foreign office and foreign minister * Unit ...

Directors of Military Intelligence

Directors of Military Intelligence have been: Deputy Quartermaster General, Intelligence Branch * 1873–1878 Patrick Leonard MacDougall * 1878–1882 Archibald Alison * 1882–1886

Aylmer Cameron Colonel Aylmer Spicer Cameron, (12 August 1833 – 10 June 1909), born in Perth, was a British soldier and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to Bri ...

(Assistant Quartermaster General, Intelligence Branch) * 1886–1888

Director of Military Intelligence * 1888–1891

* 1891–1896 Edward Francis Chapman * 1896–1901 John Charles Ardagh Director General of Mobilisation and Military Intelligence * 1901–1904 William Nicholson Director of Military Operations * 1904–1906 James Grierson * 1906–1910 Spencer Ewart * 1910–1914

Henry Wilson Henry Wilson (born Jeremiah Jones Colbath; February 16, 1812 – November 22, 1875) was an American politician who was the 18th vice president of the United States from 1873 until his death in 1875 and a senator from Massachusetts from 1855 ...

* 1914–1915 Charles Callwell Director of Military Intelligence * 1915–1916 Charles Callwell * 1916–1918 George Mark Watson Macdonogh * 1918–1922 William Thwaites Director of Military Operations and Intelligence * 1922–1923 William Thwaites * 1923–1926 John Burnett-Stuart * 1926–1931 Ronald Charles * 1931–1934 William Henry Bartholomew * 1934–1936 John Greer Dill * 1936–1938 Robert Hadden Haining * 1938–1939 Henry Royds Pownall Director of Military Intelligence * 1939–1940 Frederick Beaumont-Nesbitt * 1940–1944 Francis Henry Norman Davidson * 1944–1945 John Sinclair * 1945–1946

Freddie de Guingand Major-General Sir Francis Wilfred "Freddie" de Guingand, (28 February 1900 – 29 June 1979) was a British Army officer who served as Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery's chief of staff from the Second Battle of El Alamein until the end of t ...

* 1946–1948 Gerald Templer * 1948–1949

Douglas Packard Lieutenant General Sir Charles Douglas Packard, (17 May 1903 – 2000) was a British Army officer who achieved high office in the 1950s. Military career After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Packard was commissioned into ...

* 1949–1953

Arthur Shortt Major General Arthur Charles Shortt, (2 April 1899 – June 1984) was a British Army officer who served as Director of Military Intelligence from 1949 to 1953. Military career Shortt was commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 26 August 1916 ...

* 1953–1956 Valentine Boucher * 1956–1959 Cedric Rhys Price * 1959–1962 Richard Eyre Lloyd * 1962–1965 Marshall St John Oswald

History

Sections

Directors of Military Intelligence

References

Sources

Further reading