William Melville
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William Melville (April 25, 1850 - February 1, 1918) was an Irish law enforcement officer and the first chief of the British Secret Service, forerunner of MI5.
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[edit] Birth
William Melville was born son of a baker and publican in Direenaclaurig Cross, Sneem, County Kerry, Ireland. He immigrated to London in the 1860s and followed his father's footsteps as a baker before he joined the Metropolitan Police in 1872.
He was once dismissed for insubordination but was later reinstated and later promoted to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
[edit] Scotland Yard
In 1882 he was chosen to be one of the founding members of the Special Irish Branch that was founded to work against Fenians and anarchists. Melville was posted to the Le Havre port, during which posting his son, James, later Sir James Melville QC, was born.
In December 1888 Melville returned to London and assigned to protect the Shah of Persia in his state visit. His duties later expanded to the protection of British Royal Family and he foiled the Jubilee Plot against Queen Victoria in 1887. In 1891 he began to campaign against anarchists by raiding and wrecking anarchist clubs and underground printing houses. He also revealed the Walsall Plot.
In 1893 Melville became Superintendent of Scotland Yard's Special Branch when his predecessor John Littlechild retired to become a private investigator. When he fired veteran sergeant Patrick McIntyre, McIntyre went to press and claimed that Melville had instigated the whole Walsall Plot himself, a claim vindicated by police files released over 80 years later.[1]
In the next ten years, Melville embarked on a large series of well-publicized raids against anarchists. He went to Victoria Station to personally arrest bomber Théodule Meunier. In 1896 Melville recruited Shlomo Rosenblum (later known as Sidney Reilly) as an informer in an organization he suspected to be involved with Russian anarchists.
In 1901 he worked with Gustav Steinhauer of the German Secret Service to thwart a plot against the Kaiser during the state funeral of Queen Victoria. In June 1900 Melville met future stage magician Harry Houdini when he came to Scotland Yard to showcase his abilities as an escapologist. When Houdini released himself easily from the police handcuffs, Melville befriended him and reputedly learned lock picking.
On 1 November 1903, Melville resigned as superintendent. According to the conclusions of author Andrew Cook, his biographer, which are not accepted by all historians, Melville then became the head of British Secret Service with the code name "M". He founded a private detective agency with one of his pseudonyms, William Morgan. Still, the service had small budget and on occasion Melville had to do the job himself. [2].
[edit] Secret Service Bureau
After 1903, when relations between Britain and Germany cooled, Melville lobbied the government to create a counter-espionage service. In 1906 Melville obtained German mobilization plans and investigated their financial support to the Boers. He hired a Courage Brewery representative in Hamburg to supply intelligence for him and in 1909 went to Germany himself to recruit more agents. Melville got what he wanted In October 1909 when the War Office authorized the creation of the Secret Service Bureau, nineteen military intelligence departments - MI1 to MI19, but MI5 and MI6 came to be the most recognized as they are the only ones to have remained active to this day.
His own section continued as a separate Special Section and he concentrated on looking for German spies. In August 1914 he eventually was able to identify the barbershop of Karl Gustav Ernst, that was the centre of a German spy ring. After the outbreak of World War I, Secret Service received more funding. Melville recruited more personnel for his section when it was attached to newly found G-section, that concentrated on investigating suspected agents. He also founded a spy school opposite the War Office at Whitehall Court.
[edit] Death
William Melville died of kidney failure in February of 1918.
According to ([1]): "Jim Fitzgerald...among a number of relations of Melville's still living in Sneem...We're very proud of him...the last time he visited here was in 1913, but he was watched by republicans and didn't stay long. Now everyone is very proud of his connection to here."
| Preceded by First Holder |
Head of SIS 1903 – 1909 |
Succeeded by Mansfield Smith-Cumming |
| Preceded by First Holder |
Director General of MI5 1903 – 1909 |
Succeeded by Vernon Kell |
[edit] References
- ^ Porter, Bernard (2005). "M: MI5's First Spymaster". The English Historical Review 120 (489): 21459-1460. doi:.
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2001/sep/11/freedomofinformation.uk
- Andrew Cook - M: MI5's First Spymaster (2004)
[edit] See also
- Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming
- Sidney Reilly
- Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart
- Vernon Kell
- Sir James Melville KC son, eminent barrister, MP for Gateshead and Solicitor General in Ramsay MacDonald government - died in office aged 46. Had successfully defended anarchists; also unsuccessfully acted in appeal against the obscenity decision re: Radclyffe Hall's The Well of Loneliness. Married to Sara Tugander, Bonar Law's former secretary.
[edit] External links
- Official website
- MI5.gov.uk History
- Works by or about William Melville in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
