Directorate of Military Intelligence (United Kingdom)

"MI16" redirects here. For other uses, seeMI16 (disambiguation).

TheDirectorate of Military Intelligence(DMI) was a department of theBritishWar Office.

Directorate of Military Intelligence

Agency overview
Formed	1873
Preceding agency	Department of Topography & Statistics
Dissolved	1964
Superseding agency	Defence Intelligence
Jurisdiction	Government of the United Kingdom
Headquarters	Horseguards Avenue Whitehall London
Agency executive	Secretary of State for War
Parent department	War Office

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 theBombay Engineer Corps,in 1854 in the early stages of theCrimean War.

In 1873 theIntelligence Branchwas 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 ofHenry Brackenbury,a protege of influential Adjutant-GeneralLord 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 asCommander-in-Chief of the Forcesin 1895, he made the Director of Military Intelligence directly responsible to him. At the outbreak of theSecond Boer Warin 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 theEsher Reportin 1904 the War Office was dramatically reorganized. The post of Commander-in-Chief was abolished and replaced by theChief of the General Staff.Planning and intelligence would be the responsibility of the Directorate of Military Operations.

When the War Office was subsumed into theMinistry of Defence(MoD) in 1964, the DMI was absorbed into theDefence Intelligence Staff.

Sections

DuringWorld War I,Britishsecret serviceswere divided into numbered sections namedMilitary Intelligence,department numberx,abbreviated toMIx,such as MI1 for information management. The branch, department, section, and sub-section numbers varied through the life of the department; examples include:

Name	World War I	World War II	Current status
MI1	Secretariat, including: MI1b: Interception and cryptanalysis. MI1c: TheForeign Section of the Secret Service Bureau.	Administration	Reorganized around 1919 MI1b is an ancestor ofGCHQ
MI2	Geographical information (Americas, Latin countries, Balkans, Ottoman Empire, Trans-Caucasus, Arabia, Africa less French and Spanish possessions)	Information on Middle and Far East, Scandinavia, US, USSR, Central and South America.	These functions were absorbed intoMI3in 1941.
MI3	Geographical Information (rest of European countries)	Information on Eastern Europe and the Baltic states (plus USSR, Scandinavia and Finland after summer 1941).	Functions absorbed intoMI6in 1945
MI4	Topographical information and military maps	Geographical section—maps.	Transferred to Military Operations in April 1940
MI5	Counter-espionage and military policy in dealing with the civil population (the formerHome Section of the Secret Service Bureau)	Liaison with theSecurity Service(counterintelligence)	Active
MI6	Legal and economic section dealing with the MI finance as well as economic intelligence and personnel records. Monitoring arms trafficking.	Liaison withSecret Intelligence Service	Active
MI7	Press censorship and propaganda	Press and propaganda	Transferred to theMinistry of Informationin around May 1940.
MI8	Cable censorship	Signals interceptionandcommunications security.	Ran until 1961.
MI9	Postal censorship	Escaped British PoW debriefing, escape and evasion (also: enemy PoW interrogation until 1941).	Operated until 1945
MI10	Foreign Military Attaches	Technical Intelligence worldwide	Merged into MI16 after World War II
MI11		Military Security.	Disbanded at the end of WWII
MI12		Liaison with censorship organisations in Ministry of Information, military censorship.
MI13		(Not used)
MI14		Germany and German-occupied territories (aerial photography).	Operated until spring 1943
MI15		Aerial photography. In the spring of 1943, aerial photography moved to theAir Ministryand MI15 became air defence intelligence.	Operated during the World War II era.
MI16		Scientific Intelligence (formed 1945).
MI17		Secretariat for Director of Military Intelligence from April 1943.
MI18		(Not used)
MI19		Enemyprisoner of warinterrogation (formed from MI9 in December 1941).	Operated during the World War II era.
Others	MIR: Information on Russia, Siberia, Central Asia, Persia, Afghanistan, China, Japan, Thailand and India	MI (JIS):″Axis planning staff″ related to Joint Intelligence Staff, a sub-group of the Joint Intelligence Committee.
		MI L:Attaches.
		MI L(R):Russian Liaison.

Two MI section-names remain in common use, MI5 and MI6, in most part due to their use inspy fictionand the news media.

"MI5"is used as the short form name of theSecurity Service,and is included in the agency's logo andweb address.MI6is included as an alias on theSecret Intelligence Servicewebsite, though the official abbreviation, SIS, is predominant.

While the names remain, the agencies are now responsible to different departments of state, MI5 to theHome Office,and MI6 theForeign Office.

Directors of Military Intelligence

Directors of Military Intelligence have been:

Deputy Quartermaster General, Intelligence Branch

• 1873–1878Patrick Leonard MacDougall
• 1878–1882Archibald Alison
• 1882–1886Aylmer Cameron(Assistant Quartermaster General, Intelligence Branch)
• 1886–1888Henry Brackenbury

Director of Military Intelligence

• 1888–1891Henry Brackenbury
• 1891–1896Edward Francis Chapman
• 1896–1901John Charles Ardagh

Director General of Mobilisation and Military Intelligence

• 1901–1904William Nicholson

Director of Military Operations

• 1904–1906James Grierson
• 1906–1910Spencer Ewart
• 1910–1914Henry Wilson
• 1914–1915Charles Callwell

Director of Military Intelligence

• 1915–1916 Charles Callwell
• 1916–1918George Mark Watson Macdonogh
• 1918–1922William Thwaites

Director of Military Operations and Intelligence

• 1922–1923William Thwaites
• 1923–1926John Burnett-Stuart
• 1926–1931Ronald Charles
• 1931–1934William Henry Bartholomew
• 1934–1936John Greer Dill
• 1936–1938Robert Hadden Haining
• 1938–1939Henry Royds Pownall

Director of Military Intelligence

• 1939–1940Frederick Beaumont-Nesbitt
• 1940–1944Francis Henry Norman Davidson
• 1944–1945John Sinclair
• 1945–1946Freddie de Guingand
• 1946–1948Gerald Templer
• 1948–1949Douglas Packard
• 1949–1953Arthur Shortt
• 1953–1956Valentine Boucher
• 1956–1959Cedric Rhys Price
• 1959–1962Richard Eyre Lloyd
• 1962–1965Marshall St John Oswald

Sources

• Dylan, Huw (2014).Defence Intelligence and the Cold War: Britain's Joint Intelligence Bureau 1945–1964,Oxford University PressISBN978-0199657025

Further reading

• The DMI in World War I:Link