David Petrie
Encyclopedia
Sir David Petrie, KCMG
, CIE
, CVO
, CBE, KPM (1879–1961) was director general (DG) of MI5
, the United Kingdom
's internal security service, from 1941 to 1946. He was described as "a rugged and kindly Scot, with...immense physical and moral strength"
, the second surviving son of Thomas Petrie, master millwright, and his wife, Jane Allan. After taking an MA degree at Aberdeen University, Petrie entered the Indian police in December 1900. He served for three years in the Punjab
and was then seconded (1904–8) to the North-West Frontier Province
as quartermaster
and adjutant
of the Samana Rifles (Kohat border military police). After acting as assistant to the deputy inspector-general of the Punjab criminal investigation department (1909–11), he was moved to the Department of Criminal Intelligence (DCI), responsible to the Home Department of the government of India, and there became assistant to its assistant director.
In December 1912 bomb attack on the viceroy, Lord Hardinge, in Delhi
led to an investigation by Petrie and his investigation took until he February 1914 when he managed to arrest the terrorists. He received the King's Police Medal. The outbreak of the First World War
resulted in an upsurge in the activities of militant Indian nationalists, partly because so many British troops were being transferred to the Western Front
. In a gun battle with Sikh revolutionaries at Budge-Budge on 29 September 1914 Petrie was wounded, and a subsequent infection meant convalescence back in Britain.
for six months from August 1915 as an intelligence officer. His reports convinced the government of India that it needed its own overseas intelligence network to counter the local intelligence threat and ordered Petrie to set one up. He recruited agents during a tour of Singapore
, the Dutch East Indies
, the Philippines
, Hong Kong
, China
, and Japan
, and directed their operations from August 1916 to November 1919, while ostensibly vice-consul in Shanghai
. He was honoured with the CIE
(1915), OBE
(1918), and CBE
(1919).
Petrie was offered the directorship of the DCI in 1919, but turned this down on the grounds of exhaustion. In 1920 he married Edris Naida (d. 1945), daughter of W. Henry Elliston Warrall, a sea captain; there were no children. In 1921-2, he escorted the Duke of Connaught and the Prince of Wales
during their visits to India and worked again in the Punjab in 1923 as senior superintendent of police in Lahore
. As a member of the royal commission on the public services in India (1923–4), he pondered the rate at which Indian personnel should be admitted to the higher echelons.
In 1924, when Cecil Kaye, the Director of the DCI retired, Petrie this time consented to become director, renamed it as the Intelligence Bureau of the home department of the government of India. It co-ordinated the efforts of provincial police forces to combat terrorism and communal violence and used informers to monitor the activity of the non-co-operation movement. Attempts by M. N. Roy to establish communist cells were comprehensively thwarted, for which Petrie received much credit. Knighted in June 1929, he left the intelligence bureau in 1931 to become first a member and then chairman (1932–6) of the Indian public services commission. He also chaired the Indian Red Cross Society.
On his retirement from Indian service in 1936 Petrie spent some time in East Africa
and the Levant
. He assisted his old friend and colleague Sir Charles Tegart in reporting on reorganization of the Palestine police (December 1937–January 1938) before settling in Britain. His career appeared to be at an end until he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps and posted to Cairo
in May 1940 as a result of World War II
. Six months later he was recalled to London and asked to become director-general of the Security Service (still commonly known as MI5
, its designation prior to 1931). Petrie hesitated to accept.
had dismissed its long-serving chief, Sir Vernon Kell, in June, but his temporary successor, A. W. A. (Jasper) Harker
, had made little difference. It was Stewart Menzies
, head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6), who now put forward Petrie, but Sir David refused to take charge without examining the situation for himself. His report, dated 13 February 1941, revealed that rapid expansion of MI5 (from thirty officers in 1938 to more than 200) had produced haphazard recruitment, inadequate supervision, confusion in the chain of command, and general demoralization. Having emphasized the seriousness of the problem, he agreed to tackle it—on the understanding that the director-general should be master in his own house. Petrie suspected that previous interference by Lord Swinton, chairman of the security executive, had exacerbated factional struggles. He formally took over on 24 April 1941.
The mere presence of Petrie appeared to improve the atmosphere inside MI5. A powerfully built man, with a steady gaze, square jaw, and military moustache, he was straightforward, firm, and decisive, combining a thorough grasp of practical intelligence work with the skills of an unspectacular but effective manager. His manner with subordinates was rather formal; he called even those closest to him by their surnames, and some sensed an air of Scottish puritanism about him. Very industrious, he briefed himself with great care for meetings, where he generally spoke little but to the point. His writing style could be long-winded and pompous, and he made scant effort to cultivate influential people, yet his reliability helped restore official confidence in his top-secret department.
Petrie ended wrangling within MI5 over the new Hollerith
punched-card
filing method by ruling in its favour, and reorganized the divisional structure of the service to allow its B division to concentrate on counter-espionage. Since autumn 1940 Guy Liddell
had been successfully developing the ‘Double Cross System
’, whereby captured German spies were used to feed false information to Berlin
. There was much friction between MI5 and the SIS over access to decrypted signals intelligence from the Radio Security Service, and Petrie grew exasperated. The two secret services seemed competitive rather than complementary in some matters. MI5 did not operate more than 3 miles outside the British empire, while the SIS managed British intelligence and counter-intelligence in foreign countries. Petrie proposed in April 1942 that the SIS counter-intelligence section should be incorporated into B division of MI5, but prolonged negotiations came to nothing, despite his argument that the ideal demarcation between MI5 and the SIS was functional (defensive–offensive) rather than geographical.
In 1944, after the D-day
landings surprised the Germans, Petrie claimed that MI5 had totally defeated enemy espionage in Britain. In reality, their handling of the double agents through the "double cross" operation also perperated extensive and highly successful strategic deception programmes. Post-war study of German intelligence (Abwehr) archives confirmed this. In retrospect, however, this triumph had to be set alongside a serious failure: the inadequate surveillance of Soviet spies. Petrie sensed that the Russian espionage which MI5 uncovered was the tip of an iceberg, but the Foreign Office urged restraint and MI5 had itself already been penetrated, by Anthony Blunt
).
Petrie was awarded the KCMG in 1945, as well as American, Dutch, and Czechoslovak orders. Though the new Labour
government viewed MI5 with some suspicion, he succeeded in resisting any reduction in its powers or remit. Attlee
disregarded his recommendation of Liddell as a successor, however, and appointed Percy Sillitoe
as director-general when Petrie retired in 1946.
He died in Sidmouth
, Devon
, on 7 August 1961.
Order of St Michael and St George
The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....
, CIE
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
, CVO
Royal Victorian Order
The Royal Victorian Order is a dynastic order of knighthood and a house order of chivalry recognising distinguished personal service to the order's Sovereign, the reigning monarch of the Commonwealth realms, any members of her family, or any of her viceroys...
, CBE, KPM (1879–1961) was director general (DG) of MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
's internal security service, from 1941 to 1946. He was described as "a rugged and kindly Scot, with...immense physical and moral strength"
Early life
David Petrie was born on 9 September 1879 at Inveravon, BanffshireBanffshire
The County of Banff is a registration county for property, and Banffshire is a Lieutenancy area of Scotland.The County of Banff, also known as Banffshire, was a local government county of Scotland with its own county council between 1890 and 1975. The county town was Banff although the largest...
, the second surviving son of Thomas Petrie, master millwright, and his wife, Jane Allan. After taking an MA degree at Aberdeen University, Petrie entered the Indian police in December 1900. He served for three years in the Punjab
Punjab (British India)
Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...
and was then seconded (1904–8) to the North-West Frontier Province
North-West Frontier Province
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa , formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province and various other names, is one of the four provinces of Pakistan, located in the north-west of the country...
as quartermaster
Quartermaster
Quartermaster refers to two different military occupations depending on if the assigned unit is land based or naval.In land armies, especially US units, it is a term referring to either an individual soldier or a unit who specializes in distributing supplies and provisions to troops. The senior...
and adjutant
Adjutant
Adjutant is a military rank or appointment. In some armies, including most English-speaking ones, it is an officer who assists a more senior officer, while in other armies, especially Francophone ones, it is an NCO , normally corresponding roughly to a Staff Sergeant or Warrant Officer.An Adjutant...
of the Samana Rifles (Kohat border military police). After acting as assistant to the deputy inspector-general of the Punjab criminal investigation department (1909–11), he was moved to the Department of Criminal Intelligence (DCI), responsible to the Home Department of the government of India, and there became assistant to its assistant director.
In December 1912 bomb attack on the viceroy, Lord Hardinge, in Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
led to an investigation by Petrie and his investigation took until he February 1914 when he managed to arrest the terrorists. He received the King's Police Medal. The outbreak of the First World War
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
resulted in an upsurge in the activities of militant Indian nationalists, partly because so many British troops were being transferred to the Western Front
Western Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
. In a gun battle with Sikh revolutionaries at Budge-Budge on 29 September 1914 Petrie was wounded, and a subsequent infection meant convalescence back in Britain.
Work in India
After his convalescence Petrie returned to India in 1915; at this stage the DCI was concerned about contact between Indian nationalist rebels and German intelligence agents in neutral Siam. Petrie was attached to the British legation in BangkokBangkok
Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...
for six months from August 1915 as an intelligence officer. His reports convinced the government of India that it needed its own overseas intelligence network to counter the local intelligence threat and ordered Petrie to set one up. He recruited agents during a tour of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
, the Dutch East Indies
Dutch East Indies
The Dutch East Indies was a Dutch colony that became modern Indonesia following World War II. It was formed from the nationalised colonies of the Dutch East India Company, which came under the administration of the Netherlands government in 1800....
, the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
, Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, and Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, and directed their operations from August 1916 to November 1919, while ostensibly vice-consul in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. He was honoured with the CIE
Order of the Indian Empire
The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...
(1915), OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(1918), and CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(1919).
Petrie was offered the directorship of the DCI in 1919, but turned this down on the grounds of exhaustion. In 1920 he married Edris Naida (d. 1945), daughter of W. Henry Elliston Warrall, a sea captain; there were no children. In 1921-2, he escorted the Duke of Connaught and the Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales
Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...
during their visits to India and worked again in the Punjab in 1923 as senior superintendent of police in Lahore
Lahore
Lahore is the capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab and the second largest city in the country. With a rich and fabulous history dating back to over a thousand years ago, Lahore is no doubt Pakistan's cultural capital. One of the most densely populated cities in the world, Lahore remains a...
. As a member of the royal commission on the public services in India (1923–4), he pondered the rate at which Indian personnel should be admitted to the higher echelons.
In 1924, when Cecil Kaye, the Director of the DCI retired, Petrie this time consented to become director, renamed it as the Intelligence Bureau of the home department of the government of India. It co-ordinated the efforts of provincial police forces to combat terrorism and communal violence and used informers to monitor the activity of the non-co-operation movement. Attempts by M. N. Roy to establish communist cells were comprehensively thwarted, for which Petrie received much credit. Knighted in June 1929, he left the intelligence bureau in 1931 to become first a member and then chairman (1932–6) of the Indian public services commission. He also chaired the Indian Red Cross Society.
On his retirement from Indian service in 1936 Petrie spent some time in East Africa
East Africa
East Africa or Eastern Africa is the easterly region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics. In the UN scheme of geographic regions, 19 territories constitute Eastern Africa:...
and the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. He assisted his old friend and colleague Sir Charles Tegart in reporting on reorganization of the Palestine police (December 1937–January 1938) before settling in Britain. His career appeared to be at an end until he was commissioned into the Intelligence Corps and posted to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
in May 1940 as a result of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Six months later he was recalled to London and asked to become director-general of the Security Service (still commonly known as MI5
MI5
The Security Service, commonly known as MI5 , is the United Kingdom's internal counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its core intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service focused on foreign threats, Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence...
, its designation prior to 1931). Petrie hesitated to accept.
Head of MI5
MI5, responsible for defence against espionage, subversion, and sabotage, was near collapse in 1940, riven by internal feuds and overwhelmed with reports of suspected ‘fifth columnist’ activity and demands for security ‘vetting’. Winston ChurchillWinston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
had dismissed its long-serving chief, Sir Vernon Kell, in June, but his temporary successor, A. W. A. (Jasper) Harker
Oswald Allen Harker
Oswald Allen Harker CBE , also called Brigadier 'Jasper' Harker, was Acting Director General of MI5 from 1940 to 1941.-Career:Harker served as the Deputy Director General prior to his promotion. He was promoted to acting Director General of MI5 in June 1940 when Major-General Sir Vernon Kell was...
, had made little difference. It was Stewart Menzies
Stewart Menzies
Major General Sir Stewart Graham Menzies, KCB, KCMG, DSO, MC was Chief of MI6 , British Secret Intelligence Service, during and after World War II.-Early life, family:...
, head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6), who now put forward Petrie, but Sir David refused to take charge without examining the situation for himself. His report, dated 13 February 1941, revealed that rapid expansion of MI5 (from thirty officers in 1938 to more than 200) had produced haphazard recruitment, inadequate supervision, confusion in the chain of command, and general demoralization. Having emphasized the seriousness of the problem, he agreed to tackle it—on the understanding that the director-general should be master in his own house. Petrie suspected that previous interference by Lord Swinton, chairman of the security executive, had exacerbated factional struggles. He formally took over on 24 April 1941.
The mere presence of Petrie appeared to improve the atmosphere inside MI5. A powerfully built man, with a steady gaze, square jaw, and military moustache, he was straightforward, firm, and decisive, combining a thorough grasp of practical intelligence work with the skills of an unspectacular but effective manager. His manner with subordinates was rather formal; he called even those closest to him by their surnames, and some sensed an air of Scottish puritanism about him. Very industrious, he briefed himself with great care for meetings, where he generally spoke little but to the point. His writing style could be long-winded and pompous, and he made scant effort to cultivate influential people, yet his reliability helped restore official confidence in his top-secret department.
Petrie ended wrangling within MI5 over the new Hollerith
Herman Hollerith
Herman Hollerith was an American statistician who developed a mechanical tabulator based on punched cards to rapidly tabulate statistics from millions of pieces of data. He was the founder of one of the companies that later merged and became IBM.-Personal life:Hollerith was born in Buffalo, New...
punched-card
Tabulating machine
The tabulating machine was an electrical device designed to assist in summarizing information and, later, accounting. Invented by Herman Hollerith, the machine was developed to help process data for the 1890 U.S. Census...
filing method by ruling in its favour, and reorganized the divisional structure of the service to allow its B division to concentrate on counter-espionage. Since autumn 1940 Guy Liddell
Guy Liddell
Guy Maynard Liddell, CB, CBE, MC was a British intelligence officer during World War II.-Early life & career:...
had been successfully developing the ‘Double Cross System
Double Cross System
The Double Cross System, or XX System, was a World War II anti-espionage and deception operation of the British military intelligence arm, MI5. Nazi agents in Britain - real and false - were captured, turned themselves in or simply announced themselves and were then used by the British to broadcast...
’, whereby captured German spies were used to feed false information to Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
. There was much friction between MI5 and the SIS over access to decrypted signals intelligence from the Radio Security Service, and Petrie grew exasperated. The two secret services seemed competitive rather than complementary in some matters. MI5 did not operate more than 3 miles outside the British empire, while the SIS managed British intelligence and counter-intelligence in foreign countries. Petrie proposed in April 1942 that the SIS counter-intelligence section should be incorporated into B division of MI5, but prolonged negotiations came to nothing, despite his argument that the ideal demarcation between MI5 and the SIS was functional (defensive–offensive) rather than geographical.
In 1944, after the D-day
D-Day
D-Day is a term often used in military parlance to denote the day on which a combat attack or operation is to be initiated. "D-Day" often represents a variable, designating the day upon which some significant event will occur or has occurred; see Military designation of days and hours for similar...
landings surprised the Germans, Petrie claimed that MI5 had totally defeated enemy espionage in Britain. In reality, their handling of the double agents through the "double cross" operation also perperated extensive and highly successful strategic deception programmes. Post-war study of German intelligence (Abwehr) archives confirmed this. In retrospect, however, this triumph had to be set alongside a serious failure: the inadequate surveillance of Soviet spies. Petrie sensed that the Russian espionage which MI5 uncovered was the tip of an iceberg, but the Foreign Office urged restraint and MI5 had itself already been penetrated, by Anthony Blunt
Anthony Blunt
Anthony Frederick Blunt , was a British art historian who was exposed as a Soviet spy late in his life.Blunt was Professor of the History of Art at the University of London, director of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Surveyor of the King's Pictures and London...
).
Petrie was awarded the KCMG in 1945, as well as American, Dutch, and Czechoslovak orders. Though the new Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
government viewed MI5 with some suspicion, he succeeded in resisting any reduction in its powers or remit. Attlee
Clement Attlee
Clement Richard Attlee, 1st Earl Attlee, KG, OM, CH, PC, FRS was a British Labour politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1945 to 1951, and as the Leader of the Labour Party from 1935 to 1955...
disregarded his recommendation of Liddell as a successor, however, and appointed Percy Sillitoe
Percy Sillitoe
Sir Percy Joseph Sillitoe KBE was Director General of MI5, the United Kingdom's internal security service, from 1946 to 1953...
as director-general when Petrie retired in 1946.
He died in Sidmouth
Sidmouth
Sidmouth is a small town on the English Channel coast in Devon, South West England. The town lies at the mouth of the River Sid in the East Devon district, south east of Exeter. It has a population of about 15,000, of whom 40% are over 65....
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, on 7 August 1961.