The Intelligence Corps was formed in July 1940 but on the understanding that it would be disbanded after the war. The fact that it continues to exist today is down to the foresight and determination of one man – Major General F H N Davidson, a highly decorated Royal Artillery officer who served as Director of Military Intelligence between 1940 and 1944 and then as Colonel Commandant of the Corps between 1952 and 1960. Recognising the need for an Intelligence Corps in peacetime, in preparation for any future conflicts, Davidson fought the War Office to preserve the Corps, in the face of strong opposition, when the war ended and won. Later, while Colonel Commandant of the Corps in the 1950s, he fought the War Office again, still facing strong opposition, this time to remove the ban on Regular officers being allowed into the Corps and his determination led to the ‘First 100’ Regular officers being transferred and/or commissioned into the Corps. It was this move that enabled to the Corps to develop into the organisation it is today.

This book charts the biographical background of Major General Davidson and details his two successful skirmishes with the War Office on behalf of the Intelligence Corps and the development of the Corps between 1945 and the early 1980s.

(Note:  Part Two will cover the development of the Corps from the 1980s to the present day, through the eyes of an Intelligence Corps officer whose career in the Corps would lead to his elevation to 4* General, thus justifying Major General Davidson’s belief that officers of the Intelligence Corps were second to none and could compete for the most senior positions in the British Army).