Great Britain: MI5 brings to light the faceless figures who built the service

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | December 11, 2005 | Sean Rayment

[Stoat]

MI5 brings to light the faceless figures who built the service

By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 11/12/2005)

They were the shadowy spy chiefs who worked in secret to protect Britain from its enemies. But now MI5 has released photographs of all its spymasters on its website.

The pictures were published last week on the orders of Eliza Manningham-Buller, the current director-general, as part of her drive towards greater openness.

	Captain Vernon Kell

It is the first time all of the spy chiefs' photographs and biographical details have been released together: most have never been made public at all.

Until 1993, the prime minister appointed the spy chiefs in secret and their identities were never made public, but that changed with the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Dame Stella Rimington was the first woman to become director-general of MI5 and was also the first spy chief whose identity was made public. Although MI5 has embarked on a policy of greater openness - it now openly advertises for recruits - the director-general is the only member of the 2,500-strong organisation whose identity is disclosed.

Since the organisation was founded by Capt Vernon Kell in 1909, when it was known as the Secret Service Bureau, there have been 15 directors-general, only four of whom are alive.

By the time Kell was sacked by Churchill in 1940 the service had been reorganised and renamed the Security Service.

Kell's replacement, Brigadier A W A Harker, only served in the post for a year before being replaced by Sir David Petrie, who had previously served in the Indian Police and the Secret Intelligence Service, MI6. He ran the organisation from 1941 to 1946, its busiest period.

The fourth director-general, Sir Percy Sillitoe, was also a former police officer and was confronted by the rise in Soviet and communist spying in the UK. He played a part in exposing the Cambridge spy ring.

While the names of some of the former chiefs have become known in recent decades, such as Sir Roger Hollis - who served as director-general from 1956 to 1965 and who was later wrongly accused of being a Soviet spy - others, such as Sir Martin Furnival Jones, Hollis's successor, have remained anonymous. Of the surviving former chiefs, only Sir Patrick Walker, who served as chief from 1987 to 1992 has never been publicly pictured.

Dame Stella succeeded Sir Patrick and was the first to be identified while still in office.

She was succeeded by Sir Stephen Lander, at 49 one of the youngest in the service's history.

He retired in 2002 and was succeeded by Dame Eliza, a former teacher who has had to reorganise MI5 to counter Islamic terrorism.

The full list can be seen at www.mi5.gov.uk/output/Page417.html

[Stoat]

I must confess that I find this troubling.  A suitably motivated person with ill intent could conceivably research various acquaintances and spheres of activity of these people, now that their identities are known, and possibly make links to present-day people involved in confidential activities.  Such information could jeopardize ongoing investigations, intelligence gathering operations and even peoples' lives.

Considering that we are at war against an enemy without a country, without a uniform and without any interest in any rules of war or standards of decency but passionately invested in a seething hatred for us and our way of life that will only be quenched by our deaths, I would wish to suggest that intelligence is one of our most valuable and essential weapons in this war.  Anything that could conceivably compromise intelligence services needs to be avoided.  This effort at 'openness' is apparently an effort to placate critics, but it seems that many of the 'critics' are on the other side in this conflict.

[docbnj]

You are right.

If there is one thing an agency like M15 does NOT need, it is "openness."

[mattdono]

The pictures were published last week on the orders of Eliza Manningham-Buller, the current director-general, as part of her drive towards greater openness.

In the intelligence communities, I have never know that "openness" was a virtue.

I think that you are looking at a country (UK) that is destructing itself from the inside. Scary part is, we'd be fools to think that we have another 229 years to do the same.

With the leaky seive (sp?) that the CIA seems to be and that it seems jam-packed with leftist America haters with a penchant for being traitors, we probably have just as much (if not more) to be worried about.

[docbnj]

Good grief! Some of these former heads are still alive, and therefore vulnerable, thatks to some idiots idea of "openness."

[GSlob]

Well, their 7th Director [photo at the source] had the most memorable elephant ears - thus he must have been extremely easily recognizable. How would such an appearance square with his long clandestine service before he became a director?

[Stoat]

I think that you are looking at a country (UK) that is destructing itself from the inside.

True.  Our dear British Friends deserve better.  Unlike so many other peoples, they have shown such courage, forbearance, honor and gutsiness in times of battle or strife that it sickens me that such gains are in danger of being intentionally thrown away.

With the leaky seive (sp?) that the CIA seems to be and that it seems jam-packed with leftist America haters with a penchant for being traitors, we probably have just as much (if not more) to be worried about.

All too true, unfortunately.  may God help us all....our 'leaders' quite often will not.  If we are so unlucky as to get another Clinton-like treasonous pig in a White House of the future, we could be subjected to a near complete dismantling of what we have left of our intelligence infrastructure.

Also, any damages done to Great Britain's services directly affect us as well, because I'm sure that there are numerous interlinking relationships.

My great hope is that these are all fake names and this 'openness' initiative is all a cunning plan to send the Syrians and Iranians scurrying off into dead ends.

[Stoat]

Some of these former heads are still alive, and therefore vulnerable, thatks to some idiots idea of "openness."

My great hope is that these are all fake names and this 'openness' initiative is merely a cunning plan designed to send the Syrian, Iranian and North Korean secret police scurrying off into dead ends.

If not, I am curious then what is the definition of treason? 

It seems to have changed quite a bit over the past very few years.  Divulging a person's secret identity used to be grounds for execution, particularly in times of war, if my memory serves.

[Fintan]

 

From the archives.

[Deetes]

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