| Intelligence Corps | |
|---|---|
Badge of the Intelligence Corps |
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| Active | 1914-29 15 July 1940- |
| Country | UK |
| Branch | Army |
| Role | Military Intelligence |
| Size | 5 battalions |
| HQ Directorate Intelligence Corps | Chicksands (1997-) Templer Barracks (-1997) Maresfield |
| Nickname | Int Corps, Greenfly |
| Motto | Manui Dat Cognitio Vires Knowledge gives strength to the arm |
| Beret | Cypress green |
| March | Rose & Laurel (quick) Purcell’s Trumpet Tune and Ayre (slow) |
| Commanders | |
| Colonel-in-Chief | Prince Philip |
| Colonel Commandant | General Sir Nick Houghton |
| British Army Arms and Services |
|---|
| Combat Arms |
| Royal Armoured Corps |
| Infantry |
| Army Air Corps |
| Combat Support Arms |
| Royal Artillery |
| Royal Engineers |
| Royal Corps of Signals |
| Intelligence Corps |
| Combat Services |
| Royal Army Chaplains Department |
| Royal Logistic Corps |
| Army Medical Services |
| Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers |
| Adjutant General's Corps |
| Small Arms School Corps |
| Royal Army Physical Training Corps |
| General Service Corps |
| Corps of Army Music |
The Intelligence Corps (also known as the Int Corps) is one of the corps of the British Army. It is responsible for gathering, analysing and disseminating military intelligence and also for counter-intelligence and security. The Director of the Intelligence Corps is a Brigadier.
Contents |
Around the turn of the century, the first movements towards collecting military intelligence for the army were looked at, but it was viewed as not playing by the rules, and a bit underhand. By 1909, intelligence gathering had become greater understood, to the point where a counter-intelligence organisation was formed - MI5 by the Directorate of Military Intelligence (DMI) under Captain (later Major-General) Vernon Kell. Overseas intelligence gathering began in 1912 by MI6 under Commander (later Captain) Mansfield Smith-Cumming.
Although the first proposals to create an intelligence corps came in 1905, the first Intelligence Corps was formed in August 1914 and originally included only officers and their servants. It left for France on 12 August 1914. The Royal Flying Corps was formed to monitor the ground, and provided aerial photographs for the Corps to analyse. Prisoner of war and refugee debriefing techniques were developed. The unit was rapidly run down after the First World War and was finally disbanded in 1929.[1]
On 19 July 1940 a new Intelligence Corps was created by Army Order 112 and has existed since that time. The Army had been unprepared for collecting intelligence for deployment to France, and the only intelligence had been collected by Major Sir Gerald Templar. The Corps trained its operatives to parachute at RAF Ringway, who were then dropped over France as part of the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Intelligence Corps officers were involved in forming the highly-effective Long Range Desert Group, and the Corps officer Lt Col Peter Clayton was one of the four founders of the Special Air Service (SAS). Around 40% of the staff at Bletchley Park were in the Intelligence Corps, and another important function was analysing aerial photography for ground support.
The Corps gained its regimental march in 1956, first played at Kneller Hall, the home of the Royal Military School of Music. From August 1957, the Corps first had a permanent cadre of officers; previously all personnel serving in the corps were officers from other parts of the Army, on occasional tours.
On 1 February 1985 the corps was officially declared an 'Arm' (combat support) instead of a 'Service' (rear support).
Intelligence Corps personnel wear a distinctive cypress green beret with a cap badge consisting of a union rose (a red rose with a white centre) between two laurel branches and surmounted by a crown. Their motto is Manui Dat Cognitio Vires (Knowledge gives strength to the arm). The corps' quick march is "The Rose & Laurel" while its slow march is Purcell's "Trumpet Tune & Ayre".
Their headquarters, formerly at Maresfield, East Sussex, then Templer Barracks at Ashford, Kent, moved in 1997 to the former Royal Air Force station at Chicksands in Bedfordshire along with the Defence Intelligence and Security Centre and the Intelligence Corps Museum, in Campton and Chicksands off a roundabout of the A507 near the junction with the A600 and the former offices of Mid Bedfordshire, now the headquarters of Central Bedfordshire.
The corps has a particularly high proportion of commissioned officers, many of them commissioned from the ranks, and also a high percentage of female members. Non-commissioned personnel join as either as Operators Military Intelligence (OPMI) or Operator Military Intelligence (Linguist) (OPMI(L)). They do their basic 14-week military training at the Army Training Centre Pirbright. OPMI will complete their 27-week special-to-arm training at Templer Training Delivery Wing, Chicksands, at the end of which they are promoted to Lance Corporal. OPMI(L) will complete a 78-week language course at Chicksands, during which they will be promoted to Lance Corporal and also qualify for specialist pay.
Promotion continues to be more rapid than in most other corps. Officers complete their training at Sandhurst and then a Junior Officers Course (JOC) to qualify them as Intelligence Officers.
The main formation is 1 Military Intelligence Brigade. 1 MI Brigade has responsibility for three regular and two Territorial Army battalions:
The tri-service 15 Psychological Operations Group is also based at Chicksands and comes under the remit of the Intelligence Corps and 1 MI Brigade.
| Preceded by Royal Army Dental Corps |
Order of Precedence | Succeeded by Royal Army Physical Training Corps |