MI5 officers 1909-1919

The full list

There is a wealth of material on the early organisation of MI5 in National Archives file KV4/127.

I previously posted breakdowns of the organisation's structure from 1918 and 1929, but the file also includes a list of all MI5 personnel prior to 1919, ordered by seniority (i.e length of service). It is remarkably comprehensive including clerical staff, chauffeurs, charwomen, and at least one girl guide as well as full officers, who are distinguished by names in block capitals.

I have extracted the officers and transcribed them below. Those listed in italics (the great majority) had left the service at the time the list was compiled after the First World War.

Some of the earliest officers had seniority dates predating the emergence of MI5 as a distinct organisation. The first listed is the Irish agent-runner William Melville, with seniority from 1903, when he joined the War Office from the Metropolitan Police.

Melville is followed by MI5's founding head Vernon Kell, whose seniority dates from 1909, when he and Mansfield Cumming formed the Secret Service Bureau, from which MI5 and MI6 emerged as they divided the work between them.

One of the clerical staff I have excluded from the main transcript, Jane Sissmore, went on to become MI5's first female officer. Her entry reads as follows:

Name   Date Joined Date Left Remarks

Sissmore, Miss K.M.M.     24 Aug. 1916   Clerical Staff

Many of those who stayed on after the First World War, played important roles in the development of MI5 in the following decades. As I complete profiles for them, I will link them to their entries in the list below.