Major-General, The Reverend Denis Price CB,

CBE 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 o ...

(28 October 1908 – 19 March 1966) was the principal military architect in charge of Combined Operations for Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia. After serving in WWII under the Supreme Allied Commander for South East Asia, Price became Head of the BSSO British Services Security Organisation, MI5's regional office for Germany.Nigel West, the A-Z of British Intelligence, Scarecrow Press, pp.69-70. He later served as Chief of Staff, British Defence Staff in

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from 1959 to 1962. Prior to his death, he was ordained into the

Presbyterian Church Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Christianity, Reformed Protestantism, Protestant tradition named for its form of ecclesiastical polity, church government by representative assemblies of Presbyterian polity#Elder, elders, known as ...

in the United States. Recent publication of classified documents held by the British Government indicate that Price and Louis Mountbatten maintained a close working relationship, partnering for decades to build a series of international intelligence networks for the British Government.

Early life

Denis Walter Price was born in

Kandy Kandy (, ; , ) is a major city located in the Central Province, Sri Lanka, Central Province of Sri Lanka. It was the last capital of the Sinhalese monarchy from 1469 to 1818, under the Kingdom of Kandy. The city is situated in the midst of ...

Ceylon Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

and educated at

Blundell's School Blundell's School is an Private schools in the United Kingdom, independent co-educational boarding school, boarding and Day school, day school in the English Public School (United Kingdom), public school tradition, located in Tiverton, Devon, T ...

in Tiverton,

Caius College Gonville and Caius College, commonly known as Caius ( ), is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1348 by Edmund Gonville, it is the fourth-oldest of the University of Cambridge's 31 colleges and ...

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and the Royal Military Academy in

Woolwich Woolwich () is a town in South London, southeast London, England, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich. The district's location on the River Thames led to its status as an important naval, military and industrial area; a role that was mainta ...

. He was commissioned into the

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

on 31 January 1929.

Army career

Price's military appointments are as follows: *38th Field Company (1932–34) *Training Battalion, Chatham (1934–36) *Employed by the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

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on survey work (1936–38) *Company officer

Royal Military College Royal Military College may refer to: ;Australia * Royal Military College, Duntroon, Campbell, Australian Capital Territory ;Canada * Royal Military College of Canada, Kingston, Ontario * Royal Military College Saint-Jean, Saint-Jean, Quebec ;Indi ...

(1938–39) *Deputy Acting Quartermaster General, Royal Marine Division (1941) *GSOI at

Combined Operations Headquarters Combined Operations Headquarters was a department of the British War Office set up during Second World War to harass the Germans on the European continent by means of raids carried out by use of combined naval and army forces. History The comm ...

and tour of duty in the United States (1942–1943) *Head of Combined Operations Staff at the Headquarters, Supreme Allied Command South East Asia (1944–1945) *Commander, 41 Indian Beach Group (1945) *Chief Royal Engineer,

5th Indian Division The 5th Infantry Division is an infantry division of the Indian Army. It was raised during the Second World War and fought in several theatres of war and was nicknamed the "Ball of Fire". It was one of the few Allied divisions to fight again ...

and Force 110 (sent to restore order in the

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). *GSOI, Military Intelligence Branch, War Office (1947) *Brigadier, Far East Land Forces *Commander, British Services Security Organisation (1956–1958) *Chief of Staff, British Defence Staffs in Washington (1959–1962) Price was created

Commander 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 o ...

in 1945 and

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in 1961.

British Services Security Organisation

Denis Price was the first Head of the British Services Security Organisation (BSSO), a division of MI5. The BSSO originated in March 1954 as the new name for the existing British Forces Security Unit. In 1959, the Joint Intelligence Committee sought to reduce the cost of running BSSO.

MI5 MI5 ( Military Intelligence, Section 5), officially the Security Service, is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Gov ...

recommended an internal restructuring and a bigger role for itself. BSSO subsequently acquired a civilian rather than a military head for the first time. Staff numbers were reduced from 480 to 322 and some duties were passed to the German intelligence services. The Americans took over funding of the BSSO comint station at Hanover. In 1961, BSSO came under command of the C-in-C Germany, downgrading the priority of tasks from London.

Ministry

On leaving the army Price moved to United States and after a course of studies was

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are Consecration in Christianity, consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the religious denomination, denominationa ...

into the

. His studies were interrupted by the illness from which he later died, but in spite of this he served as a pastor at High Bridge Presbyterian Church in

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for the two years before his death. His funeral was held at High Bridge Presbyterian Church. In 1951, Price married Audrey de Beaufort, and they had two sons and two daughters."GEN. DENIS W. PRICE." New York Times (1923-), Mar 24, 1966.

References

Sources

*Obituary of Maj-Gen. D. W. Price, The Times, 23 March 1966 (pg. 14; Issue 56587; col F) *Copy of a letter from ord Louis Mountbattento Major General R.E.Laycock informing him that a party has been sent from SEAC to Britain for Operation Overlord, 2 May 1944. Broadlands archives. MS62/MB/1/C/51/19. University of Southampton Special Collections, University of Southampton, University Road, Southampton, SO17 1BJ. {{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Denis 1908 births 1966 deaths People educated at Blundell's School Alumni of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Royal Engineers officers British Army personnel of World War II Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America ministers British Army major generals People from Kandy Sri Lankan people of British descent 20th-century American clergy