Mi5 Directors
Mi5 Directors
Mi5 Directors
HALL OF MIRRORS
in 1993, the government took the unprecedented decision to name her publicly. Its was a world away from the services early policy. Founded in 1903, it was the Prime Minister who selected a person for the post. Up until Dame Stellas keep, the identity of the head of MI5 was kept secret - at least from the public. Indeed, the 1980s had almost expired before Downing Street finally admitted that the service even existed. Since then, MI5 staff recruitment adverts have appeared, and in 2000 the service opened its website. How times have changed. MI5s website, unlike other government departments, incorporates hi-resolution images of the men and women who for nearly a century, have engaged in a battle of wits against a plethora of spies, dictators and war mongers. Movie goers expecting a gallery of dashing agents and shadowy characters might be a little disappointed. However, for the true connoisseur of the intelligence world, the move is significant. It also dispels any remaining myths that MI5 are entrapped in establishment circles, for clearly not all associated with the service (past and present), would agree with the move. Nevertheless, the website is aimed at the public and business world, thus by providing pictures of those charged with the defence of the realm, MI5 has again provided ample evidence of a modern organisation, despite claims
Like his predecessor, Sir Percy came from a police background. He served as Chief Constable of a number of constabularies before becoming the Security Services DirectorGeneral in 1946. During his time in office, he faced the post-war rise in Soviet and Communist spying and subversion in the UK, including the exposure of the Cambridge spy ring. He became the first former Director General of the Service to publish an autobiography, Cloak without Dagger, in 1955.
Budapest in 1946. He joined the Security Service in 1948. He became Deputy Director General in 1971 and was promoted to Director General the following year.
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Director General in 1956, serving in that capacity for nine years. In 1981, allegations were published claiming that Sir Roger had been a Soviet secret agent. These were investigated and found to be groundless. (see www.eyespymag.com for further information)
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He became Deputy Director General in 1976. He succeeded Sir Howard Smith as Director General in 1981.
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n keeping with its recent policy to present a user friendly service, and on the orders of its current Director-General - Eliza Manningham-Buller, Britains Security Service (MI5) has published photographs and small biographies of all its previous heads. After nearly 100 years of trying to keep the identity of its most senior officers secret, the service has taken the welcome decision allowing the public to examine in great detail Britains domestic spymasters. For a number of them, its the first time they have ever appeared in public. When Dame Stella Rimington was appointed Director-General
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Sir Howard Smith (1919-1996) 9th Director General, 1978-1981
Sir Howard joined the Service after a long and distinguished career with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. During his 32 years in the Foreign Service he held a variety of posts, including serving as the British ambassador to Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union.
In 1983, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) by HM The Queen.
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that it is still not fully accountable to the public. Some of the names of the fifteen people are legendary, including the original DirectorGeneral Captain Vernon Kell who co-founded the Secret Service Bureau, the predecessor of MI5. He remained in the post until the early part of the WWII. Christopher Andrew, one of the worlds leading intelligence
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Dame Stella was the first woman to become Director General of the Security Service and in 1993 became the first publicly acknowledged DG. She joined the Service in 1969 and worked in a variety of roles, including countersubversion and counterterrorism. She was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the Bath in 1996 and published her autobiography, Open Secret, in 2001.
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He became Director General in 1953 but in 1956 moved across to the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) to become its chief. He headed the SIS until his retirement in 1972 and remains the only person to have headed both organisations successively. Sir Martin qualified as a solicitor before joining the Service in 1938. He served with distinction during the Second World War, working in a variety of roles at the Supreme Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and the War Office. He became Director General of the Service in 1965 and retired seven years later.
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Like his predecessor-butone, Sir Antony had a distinguished diplomatic career before joining the Service as its Director General. He served in a variety of high-profile roles with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, serving as the last Deputy Governor of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) before its independence in 1980. He subsequently became Deputy Secretary at the Cabinet Office before moving to the Security Service, which he headed for two years.
Brigadier A.W.A. Harker been promoted from the 2nd Director General, Services B division. He 1940-1941 was a long-serving
colleague of Kells who, like the former Director General, had been recruited from the Army. He became the Services new Deputy Director General a year later when Sir David Petrie took on the permanent role of Director General.
1936, acting in a variety of police intelligence roles, before joining the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). He was transferred from SIS to become head of the Security Service in 1941.
He oversaw one of the busiest periods in the Services history, during which the Service carried out many successful intelligence operations against Nazi Germany.
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Sir John Jones (1923-1998) 10th Director General, 1981-1985
Sir John was a former officer in the Royal Artillery and served as a civil servant in the preindependence Government of Sudan. He joined the Security Service in 1955.
Brigadier Harker replaced Sir Vernon Kell as Acting Director General of the Security Service, having
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