The chief of the Secret Intelligence Service serves as the head of 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 intelligenc ...

(SIS, also commonly known as MI6), which is part of the

United Kingdom intelligence community The Government of the United Kingdom maintains intelligence agencies within three government departments, the Foreign Office, the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence. These agencies are responsible for collecting and analysing foreign and do ...

. The chief is appointed by the

foreign secretary The secretary of state for foreign, Commonwealth and development affairs, known as the foreign secretary, is a minister of the Crown of the Government of the United Kingdom and head of the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Seen as ...

, 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 Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

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 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 ...

, with the Army and Navy also maintaining their own intelligence branches. By 1909, growing tensions with Germany led the

Committee of Imperial Defence The Committee of Imperial Defence was an important ''ad hoc'' part of the Government of the United Kingdom and the British Empire from just after the Second Boer War until the start of the Second World War. It was responsible for research, and som ...

to recommend the creation of the

Secret Service Bureau 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 intelligenc ...

to provide organization and leadership to the intelligence-gathering process as well as a layer of insulation from espionage activities for the Foreign Office. A 10 August 1909 letter from the Director of Naval Intelligence,

Alexander Bethell Admiral Sir Alexander Edward Bethell (28 August 1855 – 13 June 1932) was a British naval officer who served as Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth of the Royal Navy. Naval career Born the second son of Richard Augustus Bethell, 2nd Baron Westbury, B ...

, to then-Commander Mansfield Smith-Cumming offered him a "new billet": the opportunity to head the Foreign Section of the new

. Cumming was to begin in this role on 1 October 1909, but bureaucratic and funding obstacles delayed the start of his work. His first full day in this capacity was not until 7 October, and even then, he "went to the office and remained all day, but saw no one, nor was there anything to do there." Cumming's tenure as chief established many of the traditions and trappings of the office. Among the best known of these, he signed documents with the initial "C" in green ink, a custom upheld throughout the history of the service. One tradition that was not maintained was the selection of the Chief from the ranks of the Royal Navy. Although Cumming and his successor Hugh Sinclair both had long Navy careers, in 1939 Army veteran Stewart Menzies was appointed over naval officer (and Churchill's preferred candidate)

Gerard Muirhead-Gould Rear Admiral Gerard Charles Muirhead-Gould, (29 May 1889 – 26 June 1945) was an officer of the Royal Navy. Early life and career Muirhead-Gould was born in London on 29 May 1889,Taylor 2003 the son of Arthur Lewis Gould and Emily Gertrude Lil ...

. Plans to rotate the selection of Chief among the various branches of military service were considered, but most subsequent Chiefs have been career intelligence officers. Although the existence of the Secret Intelligence Service, much less its Chief, was not officially acknowledged until 1992, the role's reality was an open secret for many years. In 1932, Compton MacKenzie was fined under the

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 infor ...

for elements of his book ''Greek Memories''. Among these offences, according to

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

Sir Thomas Inskip was "reveal ngthe mysterious consonant by which the Chief of the Secret Service is known." By 30 May 1968, however, ''The Times'' was willing to name Menzies as the "former Head of the Secret Intelligence Service" in his obituary. A 1989 House of Commons debate listed a number of publications in which information about the Chief and his organization had been revealed. The 1994 Intelligence Services Act established a statutory basis for the Secret Intelligence Service and the position of Chief. Since then, the office has had more public visibility, including a speech by John Sawers in 2010, described by ''The Times'' it as "the first of its kind". The Chief remains the only member of the Secret Intelligence Service whose identity is officially made public. A 2010 report revealed the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service was receiving a salary of £169,999 at that time.

List of chiefs

Chiefs have been: #

Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming (1909–1923) #

Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...

Sir Hugh Sinclair (1923–1939) # Major-General Sir Stewart Menzies (1939–1952) #Major-General Sir John Sinclair (1953–1956) #Sir Richard White (1956–1968) #Sir John Rennie (1968–1973) #Sir Maurice Oldfield (1973–1978) #Sir Arthur (Dickie) Franks (1979–1982) #Sir Colin Figures (1982–1985) #Sir Christopher Curwen (1985–1989) #Sir Colin McColl (1989–1994) #Sir

David Spedding Sir David Rolland Spedding (7 March 1943 – 13 June 2001) was Head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1994 to 1999. Early life David Spedding was the son of a Border Regiment lieutenant colonel, and grew up comfortably m ...

(1994–1999) #Sir

Richard Dearlove Sir Richard Billing Dearlove (born 23 January 1945) was head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), a role known informally as "C", from 1999 until 6 May 2004. He was in his role as head of MI6 during the invasion of Iraq. He was bl ...

(1999–2004) #Sir John Scarlett (2004–2009) #Sir John Sawers (2009–2014) #Sir Alex Younger (2014–2020) # Richard Moore (2020–present)

References

{{reflist, 2

History

List of chiefs

References

See also