Michael Richard Daniell Foot, (14 December 1919 – 18 February 2012) was a British political and military historian, and former

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a rank, used in the same way ...

with the

Special Operations Executive The Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a secret British World War II organisation. It was officially formed on 22 July 1940 under Minister of Economic Warfare Hugh Dalton, from the amalgamation of three existing secret organisations. Its pu ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

Biography

The son of a career soldier, Foot was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...

and New College, Oxford, where he became involved romantically with

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her ...

. Foot joined the

on the outbreak of the

and was commissioned into a Royal Engineers searchlight

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions a ...

. In 1941 searchlight units transferred to the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. His

service number A service number is an identification code used to identify a person within a large group. Service numbers are most often associated with the military; however, they may be used in civilian organizations as well. National identification numbers may ...

was 85455. By 1942, he was serving at

Combined Operations Headquarters Combined Operations Headquarters was a department of the British War Office set up during Second World War to harass the Germans on the European continent by means of raids carried out by use of combined naval and army forces. History The comm ...

, but wanting to see action he joined the SAS as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France after D-Day. He was for a time a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...

, and was severely injured during one of his attempts to escape. For his service with the

French Resistance The French Resistance (french: La Résistance) was a collection of organisations that fought the German occupation of France during World War II, Nazi occupation of France and the Collaborationism, collaborationist Vichy France, Vichy régim ...

he was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre. He ended the war as a major. After the war he remained in the Territorial Army, transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1950. After the war Foot taught at

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

for eight years before becoming Professor of Modern History at

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

in 1967. His experiences during the war gave him a lifelong interest in the European resistance movements, intelligence matters and the experiences of prisoners of war. This led him to become the official historian of SOE, with privileged access to its records, allowing him to write some of the first, and still definitive, accounts of its wartime work, especially in France. Even so, ''SOE in France'' took four years to get clearance.

Personal life

Foot was very distantly related to his namesake

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British Labour Party politician who served as Labour Leader from 1980 to 1983. Foot began his career as a journalist on ''Tribune'' and the ''Evening Standard''. He co-wrote the 1940 p ...

. He was at one time married to the British philosopher Philippa Foot (née Bosanquet), the granddaughter of U.S. President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 22nd and 24th president of the United States from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. Cleveland is the only president in American ...

. Foot's second wife was Elizabeth King, with whom he had a son and a daughter, the historian Sarah Foot. In 1972 Foot married Mirjam Romme, who under her married name became a distinguished historian of bookbinding.

Honours

Foot was appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE) in 2001. He also received the

Territorial Decoration __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer Officer's Decoration when the Te ...

for Long Service in the Territorial Army.

Order of the British Empire (Civil) Ribbon

Ribbon - Efficiency Decoration (South Africa)

Bibliography

Books

*''Gladstone and Liberalism'' (1952) with J. L. Hammond *''British Foreign Policy since 1898'' (1956) *''Men in Uniform: Military Manpower in Modern Industrial Societies'' (1961) *''SOE in France. An Account of the Work of the British

in France 1940–1944'' (1966) *''The Gladstone Diaries'' (from 1968) editor *''War and Society: Historical Essays in Honour and Memory of J. R. Western 1926–1971'' (1973) editor *''Resistance – An Analysis of European Resistance to Nazism 1940–1945'' (1977) *''Six Faces of Courage'' (1978) *''MI9: Escape and Evasion 1939–1945'' (1979) with J. M. Langley *''Little Resistance: Teenage English Girl's Adventures in Occupied France'' (1982) with Antonia Hunt, née Lyon-Smith *''SOE, The Special Operations Executive 1940–1946'' (1984) *''Art and War: Twentieth Century Warfare as Depicted By War Artists'' (1990) *''Open and Secret War, 1938-1945'' (1991) *''Oxford Companion to World War II'' (1995) with I. C. B. Dear *''Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative'' (1997) *''SOE in the Low Countries'' (2001) *''Secret Lives: Lifting the Lid on Worlds of Secret Intelligence'' (2002) editor *''The Next Moon: The Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France'' (2004) with

Ewen Southby-Tailyour Lieutenant Colonel Ewen Southby-Tailyour, (born 18 January 1942) is a British author, sailor, and retired Royal Marine. He served for 32 years in the Royal Marines and, after retiring, he concentrated on his sailing and writing careers and has w ...

and

André Hue André Hunter Alfred Hue (7 December 1923 – 11 January 2005) was an Anglo-French businessman, soldier and spy best remembered for his work as an operative with the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in France and Burma during World War II. Ear ...

*''Clandestine Sea Operations in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Adriatic 1940–1944'' with Richard Brooks,

Routledge Routledge () is a British multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanities, behavioural science, education, law ...

, 2004, *''Memories of an SOE Historian'' (2008)

Articles

*"Great Britain and Luxemburg 1867" (''

English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, and ...

'', July 1952)

Book reviews

Notes

External links

M. R. D. Foot
at

Spartacus Educational Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects principally British history from 1700 and the history of the United States. Based in the United Kingdom, Spart ...

*
British Army Officers 1939−1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foot, M.R.D. 1919 births 2012 deaths British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau Recipients of the Legion of Honour Military personnel from London Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Alumni of New College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War II British historians Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Intelligence Corps officers People educated at Winchester College Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Royal Artillery officers Royal Engineers officers Special Air Service officers