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 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 opposin ...

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 the ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as its feeder school, New College is one of the oldest colleges at th ...

, where he became involved romantically with Iris Murdoch. Foot joined the

on the outbreak of the

and was commissioned into a

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

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 are ...

. 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 was 85455. By 1942, he was serving at Combined Operations Headquarters, but wanting to see action he joined the

SAS SAS or Sas may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''SAS'' (novel series), a French book series by Gérard de Villiers * ''Shimmer and Shine'', an American animated children's television series * Southern All Stars, a Japanese rock ba ...

as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as D ...

. 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 wa ...

, 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 The ''Croix de Guerre'' (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awa ...

. He ended the war as a

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

. 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 the ...

for eight years before becoming Professor of Modern History at Manchester University 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 SOE may refer to: Organizations * State-owned enterprise * Special Operations Executive, a British World War II clandestine sabotage and resistance organisation ** Special Operations Executive in the Netherlands, or Englandspiel * Society of Opera ...

, 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. He was at one time married to the British philosopher

Philippa Foot Philippa Ruth Foot (; née Bosanquet; 3 October 1920 – 3 October 2010) was an English philosopher and one of the founders of contemporary virtue ethics, who was inspired by the ethics of Aristotle. Along with Judith Jarvis Thomson, she is cre ...

(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 Sarah Rosamund Irvine Foot (born 23 February 1961) is an English Anglican priest and Early Middle Ages, early medieval historian, currently serving as Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Oxford. Early life and educa ...

. 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 o ...

(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 I. C. B. Dear (Ian Dear) is a full-time writer specializing in maritime and military history, and between 1996 and 2004 was a reviewer for 'Contemporary British History'. He formerly served in the Royal Marines, and later worked in the film and ...

*''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 and André Hue *''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, and ...

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

Articles

*"Great Britain and Luxemburg 1867" ('' English Historical Review'', July 1952)

Book reviews

Notes

External links

M. R. D. Foot
at Spartacus Educational *
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