Michael Richard Daniell Foot, (14 December 1919 – 18 February 2012) was a British political and military historian, and former

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

intelligence officer An intelligence officer is a member of the intelligence field employed by an organization to collect, compile or analyze information (known as intelligence) which is of use to that organization. The word of ''officer'' is a working title, not a r ...

with the

Special Operations Executive Special Operations Executive (SOE) was a British organisation formed in 1940 to conduct espionage, sabotage and reconnaissance in German-occupied Europe and to aid local Resistance during World War II, resistance movements during World War II. ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Foot was the author of the official history about the Special Operations Executive, '' SOE in France''.

Biography

The son of a career soldier, Foot was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and

New College, Oxford New College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1379 by Bishop William of Wykeham in conjunction with Winchester College as New College's feeder school, New College was one of the first col ...

, where he became involved romantically with

Iris Murdoch Dame Jean Iris Murdoch ( ; 15 July 1919 – 8 February 1999) was an Irish and British novelist and philosopher. Murdoch is best known for her novels about good and evil, sexual relationships, morality, and the power of the unconscious. Her fi ...

. Foot joined the

on the outbreak of the

and was commissioned into a

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 ...

searchlight

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of up to one thousand soldiers. A battalion is commanded by a lieutenant colonel and subdivided into several Company (military unit), companies, each typically commanded by a Major (rank), ...

. In 1941 searchlight units transferred to the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. His

service number A service number or roll number is an identification code used to identify a person within a large group. Service numbers are most often associated with the military; however, they also may be used in civilian organizations. National identificati ...

was 85455. By 1942, he was serving 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 ...

, but wanting to see action he joined the SAS as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France after

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during the Second World War. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

. He was for a time a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

, and was severely injured during one of his attempts to escape. For his service with the

French Resistance The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...

he was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

. He ended the war as a

major Major most commonly refers to: * Major (rank), a military rank * Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits * People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames * Major and minor in musi ...

. After the war he remained in the Territorial Army, transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1950. After the war Foot taught at

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

for eight years before becoming Professor of Modern History at

Manchester University The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

in 1967. His experiences during the war gave him a lifelong interest in the European resistance movements, intelligence matters and the experiences of prisoners of war. This led him to become the official historian of SOE, with privileged access to its records, allowing him to write some of the first, and still definitive, accounts of its wartime work, especially in France. Even so, ''SOE in France'' took four years to get clearance.

Personal life

Foot was very distantly related to his namesake

Michael Foot Michael Mackintosh Foot (23 July 19133 March 2010) was a British politician who was Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition from 1980 to 1983. Foot beg ...

. He was at one time married to the British philosopher Philippa Foot (née Bosanquet), the granddaughter of U.S. President

Grover Cleveland Stephen Grover Cleveland (March 18, 1837June 24, 1908) was the 22nd and 24th president of the United States, serving from 1885 to 1889 and from 1893 to 1897. He was the first U.S. president to serve nonconsecutive terms and the first Hist ...

. Foot's second wife was Elizabeth King, with whom he had a son and a daughter, the historian Sarah Foot. In 1972 Foot married Mirjam Romme, who under her married name became a distinguished historian of bookbinding. Foot has the distinction of being the only real person to be named in the spy novels of John LeCarre.

Honours

Foot was appointed a

Commander of the 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 ...

(CBE) in 2001. He also received the

Territorial Decoration __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Army Reserve (United Kingdom), Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer O ...

for Long Service in the Territorial Army.

Bibliography

Books

*''Gladstone and Liberalism'' (1952) with J. L. Hammond *''British Foreign Policy since 1898'' (1956) *''Men in Uniform: Military Manpower in Modern Industrial Societies'' (1961) *''SOE in France. An Account of the Work of the British

in France 1940–1944'' (1966) *''The Gladstone Diaries'' (from 1968) editor *''War and Society: Historical Essays in Honour and Memory of J. R. Western 1926–1971'' (1973) editor *''Resistance – An Analysis of European Resistance to Nazism 1940–1945'' (1977) *''Six Faces of Courage'' (1978) *''MI9: Escape and Evasion 1939–1945'' (1979) with J. M. Langley *''Little Resistance: Teenage English Girl's Adventures in Occupied France'' (1982) with Antonia Hunt, née Lyon-Smith *''SOE: The Special Operations Executive 1940–1946'' (1984) *''Art and War: Twentieth Century Warfare as Depicted By War Artists'' (1990) *''Open and Secret War, 1938-1945'' (1991) *''Oxford Companion to World War II'' (1995) with I. C. B. Dear *''Foreign Fields: The Story of an SOE Operative'' (1997) *''SOE in the Low Countries'' (2001) *''Secret Lives: Lifting the Lid on Worlds of Secret Intelligence'' (2002) editor *''The Next Moon: The Remarkable True Story of a British Agent Behind the Lines in Wartime France'' (2004) with Ewen Southby-Tailyour and André Hue *''Clandestine Sea Operations in the Mediterranean, North Africa and the Adriatic 1940–1944'' (2004) with Richard Brooks *''Memories of an SOE Historian'' (2008)

Articles

*"Great Britain and Luxemburg 1867" (''

English Historical Review ''The English Historical Review'' is a bimonthly peer-reviewed academic journal that was established in 1886 and published by Oxford University Press (formerly by Longman). It publishes articles on all aspects of history – British, European, a ...

'', July 1952)

Book reviews

Notes

External links

M. R. D. Foot
at

Spartacus Educational Spartacus Educational is a free online encyclopedia with essays and other educational material on a wide variety of historical subjects, principally the struggle for equality and democracy as part of British history from 1700 and the history of ...

*
British Army Officers 1939−1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Foot, M.R.D. 1919 births 2012 deaths British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Officers of the Order of Orange-Nassau British recipients of the Legion of Honour Military personnel from London Academics of the Victoria University of Manchester Alumni of New College, Oxford British Army personnel of World War II British historians Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Intelligence Corps officers People educated at Winchester College British recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Royal Artillery officers Royal Engineers officers Special Air Service officers