The Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) was a department of the BritishWar Office.[1]
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.[2][3]
In 1873 the Intelligence Branch was created within the Quartermaster General's Department with an initial staff of seven officers.[4] Initially the Intelligence Branch was solely concerned with collecting intelligence, but under the leadership of Henry Brackenbury, 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 in 1895, he made the Director of Military Intelligence directly responsible to him. At the outbreak of the Second Boer War 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 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. Planning and intelligence would be the responsibility of the Directorate of Military Operations.
During World War I, British secret services 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; examples include:
Enemy prisoner of war interrogation (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 in spy fiction 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 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.
^Aldrich, Richard James (1998). Espionage, security, and intelligence in Britain, 1945–1970. Manchester University Press. p. 66. ISBN978-0-7190-4956-9.
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