Jane Sissmore
Kathleen Maria Margaret Sissmore, MBE (1898–1982), was known as Jane Sissmore and then Jane Archer after her marriage in 1939. In 1929 she became the first female officer in Britain's Security Service, MI5, and was still their only woman officer at the time of her dismissal for insubordination in 1940. She had been responsible for investigations into Soviet intelligence and subversion. She then joined the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), but when Kim Philby, later to be exposed as a double agent, became her boss he reduced her investigative work because he feared she might uncover his treachery. In his memoirs, Philby wrote, "After Guy Liddell, Jane was perhaps the ablest professional intelligence officer ever employed by MI5". Following management changes in MI5, she returned there in 1945 or 1946. Personal life Jane Sissmore, the daughter of John Edmund Angelo Sissmore and Kathleen Maud Forbes-Smith was born in Bengal on 11 March 1898 and moved to London in her early ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Member Of The Most Excellent Order Of The British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two of which make the recipient either a Orders, decorations, and medals of the United Kingdom#Modern honours, knight if male or a dame (title), dame if female. There is also the related British Empire Medal, whose recipients are affiliated with the order, but are not members of it. The order was established on 4 June 1917 by King George V, who created the order to recognise 'such persons, male or female, as may have rendered or shall hereafter render important services to Our Empire'. Equal recognition was to be given for services rendered in the UK and overseas. Today, the majority of recipients are UK citizens, though a number of Commonwealth realms outside the UK continue to make appointments to the order. Honorary awards may be made to cit ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Royal Field Artillery
The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It was created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of the regiment, the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) and the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). It ceased to exist when it was amalgamated with the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1924. The Royal Field Artillery was the largest arm of the artillery. It was responsible for the medium calibre guns and howitzers deployed close to the front line and was reasonably mobile. It was organised into brigades, attached to divisions or higher formation The Royal Field Artillery grew dramatically during the First World War, reaching a size of over three hundred thousand men and more than 400 batteries by 1917. Notable members * Ernest Wright Alexander, Victoria Cross recipient * Tom Barry, served in Mesopotamian campaign * Ralph Chetwynd (1890-1957), Canadian businessman and politi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Oswald Allen Harker
Brigadier Oswald Allen Harker CBE (1886–1968), known as Jasper Harker, was Acting Director General of MI5 from 1940 to 1941. Background Oswald Allen Harker was born in Cirencester in 1886, the son of James Allen Harker, a professor at the Royal Agricultural College, and his wife Lizzie Allen Harker. His younger brother was Brigadier Arthur William Allen Harker CBE. Career Harker joined the Indian Police in 1905 and served as Deputy Commissioner of Police in Bombay during World War I. He joined MI5 in 1920, after being invalided home from India the previous year.C.A.G. Simkins, F.H. Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War: Security and Counter-intelligence v. 4 (Stationery Office, 1990) Harker served as the Deputy Director General prior to his promotion. He was promoted to acting Director General of MI5 __NOTOC__ The Director General of the Security Service is the head of the Security Service (commonly known as MI5), the United Kingdom's internal counter-int ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Valentine Vivian
Colonel Valentine Patrick Terrell Vivian CMG CBE (March 17, 1886–April 15, 1969) was the vice-chief of the SIS or MI6 and the first head of its counterespionage unit, Section V. Vivian, while he was attempting to introduce new blood into the service, selected Kim Philby, who later became notorious as "The Third Man" double agent and defected to the Russians, causing considerable harm to the system he had infiltrated. Family background Valentine Vivian was born on 17 March 1886 in Kensington, London. He was the youngest of nine children of Tom Comely Vivian, portrait painter, and Elizabeth Baly Farquhar, miniature painter. His brother Sir Sylvanus Percival Vivian (1880–1958) was former Registrar General of England from 1921 to 1945. In 1911, Vivian married Mary Primrose Warlow, daughter of the Venerable Edmund John Warlow, archdeacon of Lahore, India. Early career Vivian joined the Indian Police (Imperial Service) in December 1906 and was posted as assistant district ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Cryptonym
A code name, codename, call sign, or cryptonym is a code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may also be used in industrial counter-espionage to protect secret projects and the like from business rivals, or to give names to projects whose marketing name has not yet been determined. Another reason for the use of names and phrases in the military is that they transmit with a lower level of cumulative errors over a walkie-talkie or radio link than actual names. Origins Achaemenid Empire The Achaemenid Empire under Darius I employed a network of spies called the King’s Eye or the King’s Ear. These agents operated under anonymity, and “King’s Eye” was not a specific person but rather a code name for the intelligence network that reported directly to the king. Punic Wars The Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca reportedly used coded ref ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Walter Krivitsky
Walter Germanovich Krivitsky (Ва́льтер Ге́рманович Криви́цкий; birth name ''Samuel Gershevich Ginsberg,'' Самуил Гершевич Гинзберг, June 28, 1899 – February 10, 1941) was a Soviet military intelligence spymaster who defected to the West and revealed plans for the signing of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Early life Walter Krivitsky was born on June 28, 1899, to Jewish parents as Samuel Ginsberg in Podwołoczyska, Galicia, Austria-Hungary (now Pidvolochysk, Ukraine). He adopted the name "Krivitsky," which was based on the Slavic root for "crooked, twisted". It was a revolutionary ''nom de guerre'' when he entered the Cheka, the Bolshevik security and intelligence service. Espionage Krivitsky operated as an illegal resident spy, with false name and papers, in Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Italy, and Hungary. He rose to the rank of control officer. He is credited with having organised industrial sabotage, ste ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Blenheim Palace From The Garden - Geograph
Blenheim ( ) is the English name of Blindheim, a village in Bavaria, Germany, which was the site of the Battle of Blenheim in 1704. Almost all places and other things called Blenheim are named directly or indirectly in honour of the battle. Places United Kingdom * Blenheim, Leeds, an inner city area of the English city of Leeds, West Yorkshire * Blenheim, Oxfordshire, a civil parish in England **Blenheim Palace, a large stately home built for the victor of the Battle of Blenheim, John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough United States * Blenheim (Maryland), the historic Maryland estate of the Lees of Virginia * Blenheim, New Jersey, an unincorporated community in Gloucester Township, New Jersey * Blenheim, New York, a town in Schoharie County, New York * Blenheim, South Carolina, a town in Marlboro County, South Carolina * Blenheim, Virginia, an unincorporated area in Albemarle County, Virginia ** Blenheim (Blenheim, Virginia), a historic home and farm complex in Albemarle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Main Gate To The HM Prison Wormwood Scrubs In Spring 2013 (2)
Main may refer to: Geography *Main River (other), multiple rivers with the same name *Ma'in, an ancient kingdom in modern-day Yemen *Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *Spanish Main, the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries *''The Main'', the diverse core running through Montreal, Quebec, Canada, also separating the Two Solitudes *Main (lunar crater), located near the north pole of the Moon *Main (Martian crater) People and organizations *Main (surname), a list of people with this family name *Main, alternate spelling for the Minaeans, an ancient people of modern-day Yemen * Main (band), a British ambient band formed in 1991 *Chas. T. Main, an American engineering and hydroelectric company founded in 1893 *MAIN (Mountain Area Information Network), former operator of WPVM-LP (MAIN-FM) in Asheville, North Carolina, U.S. *Main Deli Steak House ("The Main"), a smoked-meat delicatessen in Montreal, Quebec, Canada Ships * ''M ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Dick White
Sir Dick Goldsmith White, (20 December 1906 – 21 February 1993) was a British intelligence officer. He was Director General (DG) of MI5 from 1953 to 1956, and Head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) from 1956 to 1968. Early life White was born in Tonbridge, Kent, the son of an ironmonger Percy Hall White and Gertrude Farthing and went to school at Bishop's Stortford College. He took a First Class Degree in History at Christ Church, Oxford in 1927, and learnt to speak German. He was athletic in his youth and obtained a blue in running at Oxford. He was described by Peter Wright as resembling David Niven: "the same perfect English manners, easy charm, and immaculate dress sense." He was, said Wright, "tall with lean, healthy features and a sharp eye". He would qualify for a Commonwealth Fellowship in 1928 which saw him seek further education in the United States at the Universities of Michigan and California. After returning to the UK, he failed to obtain a position ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Roger Hollis
Sir Roger Henry Hollis (2 December 1905 – 26 October 1973) was a British intelligence officer who served with MI5 from 1938 to 1965. He was Director General of MI5 from 1956 to 1965. Some commentators, including the journalist Chapman Pincher and intelligence officer Peter Wright, suggested that Hollis was a Soviet agent. In his book '' The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5'' (2009), the Cambridge historian Christopher Andrew rejects this theory. The government's official position, first stated by Margaret Thatcher, is that there was no evidence that Hollis was a traitor. Early years, family, and education Hollis's father, the Right Reverend George Hollis, was Bishop of Taunton. His mother was the daughter of a Canon of Wells Cathedral.Pincher, 1984, p. 14 Hollis was educated at Clifton College, Bristol. From 1924 to the spring of 1926, he attended Worcester College, Oxford, where he read English, but left without completing his degree. At Oxford he w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Christopher Andrew (historian)
Christopher Maurice Andrew, (born 23 July 1941) is an Emeritus Professor of Modern and Contemporary History at the University of Cambridge with an interest in international relations and in particular the history of intelligence services. Andrew is a former Chair of the History Faculty at Cambridge University, Official Historian of the Security Service (MI5), Honorary Air Commodore of 7006 (VR) Intelligence Squadron in the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, Chairman of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar, and former Visiting Professor at Harvard, Toronto and Canberra. Andrew served as co-editor of ''Intelligence and National Security'', and a presenter of BBC radio and TV documentaries, including the Radio Four series ''What If?''. His twelve previous books include a number of studies on the use and abuse of secret intelligence in modern history. Life Andrew was educated at Norwich School, where he is now a governor. He read history at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, graduating wi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Vernon Kell
Major General Sir Vernon George Waldegrave Kell, (21 November 1873 – 27 March 1942) was a British Army general and the founder and first Director of the British Security Service, otherwise known as MI5. Known as K, he was described in ''Who's Who'' as "Commandant, War Department Constabulary". Early life Born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, in 1873, Kell was the son of Major Waldegrave Kell of the 38th Foot and his wife, Georgiana Augusta Konarska, daughter of Samuel Alexander Ernest Konarski and Harriet Fraser Lucas. Military service After graduating from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Kell was commissioned into the South Staffordshire Regiment on 10 October 1894, and promoted to lieutenant on 15 December 1896. He was in January 1900 seconded for service in China, and fought in the Boxer Rebellion later that year. He could speak German, Italian, French and Polish with equal facility, and after serving and studying in China and Russia, he learned their respective ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |