British Intelligence in Dublin Castle

Ormonde Winter

Ormonde Winter became Chief of a new Combined Intelligence Service (CIS) for Ireland. Working closely with Sir Basil Thomson, Director of Civil Intelligence in the Home Office, with Colonel Hill Dillon, Chief of British Military Intelligence in Ireland, and with the local British Secret Service Head of Station Count Sevigné at Dublin Castle (the reference to Sevigne comes from Wikipedia, but I suspect it may be Count A D R Salis who had a grade EE special appointment)

In Dublin in March 1920, the Dublin District Command became responsible for a special branch to operate under cover. And on 27 May 1920 Lt Col Walter C Wilson became the man in charge of this unit

The Jeudwine Papers show that in the summer of 1920, Intelligence staff in GHQ Dublin comprised of the following under a GSO(1) - which was W C Wilson

• 1 GSO(2) - Hill-Dillon, SS
• 1 GSO (3) - which was Cameron, C A
• 1 IO class FF (i/c Registry) - Crawford J F T ?
• 4 IOs class GG (Area officers) - Later increased to 6 areas in Dublin, each with a head agent. (Boddington's letter to Boyd seems to point to Noble, Attwood, Carew, Carpenter, he indicates that Hyem and Thorp were admin)

The men believed to have been in the Intelligence operation are

• Boyd G F, Officer Commanding, Dublin District
• Tudor
• Thomson, Basil - Overall Head of British Intlligence
• Smith-Cumming - MI6
• Winter, Ormonde - was appointed Deputy Chief of Police and Chief of Intelligence in Ireland in May 1920.
• Brind JES, in charge of GHQ Intelligence staff in Dublin Castle
• Hill Dillon Assissant chief of GHQ Intelligence staff in Dublin Castle
• Cameron Cecil Aylmer - GSO (3), later moved to London Spy School
• Wilson, Walter Lt Col - GSO(1) Chief of Special Branch in Dublin
• Boyle D, ran D Branch when it transferred to police control in Jan 1921
• Price Ivon Henry
• Victor de Sarigny - Cl II - Russia
• Shove Frederick Harper -Class FF
• Crawford J F T - Class FF
• Attwood Philip - Class GG on General Staff (Intelligence) - MBE
• Carew Hallowell -Class GG - MBE
• Boddington Horace Frank - Class GG - OBE
• Noble William - Class GG - MBE
• Hyem Eric Pearl, Class GG - OBE
• Thorp, Andrew Fenwick - Class GG
• Kershaw J V, Class GG - OBE
• Carpenter, Percy Walter Henry - Class GG -MBE
• Hely TF - Class GG
• Savage, Arthur Raymond Boscawen
• Murray Randolph George - Class HH (badly wounded on Bloody Sunday)
• Price, Gilbert Arthur - Class HH (Killed in Treacy shooting)
• Bennett, George - Class HH (killed Bloody Sunday)
• White , Capt Alfred Philip - Class HH (killed Carolan raid)
• Young S C G - Class HH
• Cust - Class HH
• Steele, A E G - class HH
• Halestrap A E - Class HH
• Ames, Peter Ashmun - Class II (killed Bloody Sunday)
• Price LP - Class II (killed Bloody Sunday)
• Dowling, C M C- Class II. (killed Bloody Sunday)
• Maclean D L Class II (killed Blooody Sunday)
• Jeune Robert Dyne- Class II (shared a flat in Pembroke St with Murray, on duty Bloody Sunday)
• Palmer L S N - Class II
• Brown D - Classs II. Russia
• Jeffries W F - Class II, later went to run London Spy School
• Sugden G T - Class II
• Bowen P R - Class II
• Small E A - Class II. Russia
• Tottie R - Class II
• Carter A H - Class II
• Woolley. J - Class II
• Buckton - Class II
• Garrad - Class II
• Rogers - Class II
• Leigh-Bennett - Class II
• Carruthers Class II
• Haywood Class
• Howell Class II
• Biggs TW Specially employed
• Collis with MacLean in Clare
• Savage A R B Class II
• Peel C R, Specially employed no grade given in Gazette (targeted Bloody Sunday).
• Angliss, Henry James (killed Bloody Sunday). Recruited by Thomson for intelligence work in Ireland and I suspect a MI5 man. Russia
• Connolly J J In the same room as Angliss when Angliss was shot. Class II Special Appointment, with note on file that it was not to be gazetted.
• Byrnes aka Jameson shot May 1920
• Catchpole Nelligan's handler
• Genders, W - served with Angliss in Russia, recruited by Basil Thomson for intelligence work in Ireland. Suspect him to be MI5
• Lees C H F - shot in Dublin in Mar 1921 Specially employed, no grade given
• Molloy, Bryan Fergus - shot in Dublin
• Cunningham - may have been running Quinlisk
• Carpenter
• Bell
• L'Amie shot at Collinstown Oct 1920
• Bodger EG
• Smyth G.O.S - on attachment to avenge his brother's death
• Wooldridge
• Stokes
• Kitton L H -
• Hervey de Montmorency was chosen by the war office to replace a dead intelligence officers but reassigned as an intelligence officer to F Company.

There are a number of "incidents" that took place and need to be understood in the conext of the history of British Intelligence

The first men from the Hounslow spy school arrived in Ireland in eary summer 1920 after a short instruction course. The first batch were instructed to pose as RE officers, but when this patently failed to fool anybody, this guise was dropped. They were told to get on with getting to know the city of Dublin, trailing suspects and carrying out small raids to gather information. For example they raided Arthur Griffith's house and removed documents. Set up in July 1920, it was originally run by Charles Tegart with G C Denham as his number two. But they were replace after 4 months, and the London Bureau was taken over by Jeffries with Cameron as his number two. Cameron would later take over. Sixty agents were sent to Ireland over th 8 or 9 months that the scheme ran for.

GHQ set up a card index system to ceate an IRA List. Regular battalions in Ireland each had an intelligence officer, charged with running informers and gathering intelligence.

List of British Empire Awards in Jan 1923

Cairo Gang