Oswald Allen Harker
British intelligence official; Director General of MI5, 1940–1941 (acting)
| Oswald Allen Harker
| |
|---|---|
| Image |  Oswald Allen Harker. OGL v1.0. |
| Born | 1886[1] |
| Died | 1968[1] |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Director General of Security Service (MI5); 1940–1941 (acting)[1] |
| Known for | Indian Police officer; head of B Division; Deputy Director General, 1941–1946[1] |
| Predecessor | Vernon Kell |
| Website | Biography and career |
Brigadier Oswald "Jasper" Harker served as Acting Director General of the Security Service (MI5) from 1940 to 1941.[2]
Harker became Deputy Director General when Sir David Petrie was appointed as permament head of the service in 1941. He retired in 1946.[2]
Police and intelligence career
Before joining the Security Service, Harker spent fourteen years in the Indian Police, becoming deputy commissioner in Bombay. He returned to Britain through ill health in 1919 and joined MI5 in 1920 on loan from the India Office. His responsibilities subsequently included leadership of B Division, which handled investigations and inquiries.[1]
Christopher Andrew notes that Harker remained on the Indian Police establishment until 1923, so that initially MI5 did not have to pay his salary. B Division contained the Service’s small observation section and Jane Archer, its first woman officer, who handled Soviet intelligence.[3]
Acting head during the 1940 crisis
Winston Churchill appointed Harker on 10 June 1940. His authority was constrained by the Security Executive, chaired by Lord Swinton, who received executive control of the Security Service in July. Swinton brought in Reginald Horrocks to modernise the Registry and its filing system, but the intervention in B Division included the short-lived appointment of William Crocker alongside Guy Liddell.[4]
During the controversy over releasing internees, Harker argued in October 1940 against treating German and Austrian domestic servants as necessarily harmless. Christopher Andrew places this argument within MI5’s exaggerated fear of a domestic fifth column. The organisational crisis led to David Petrie’s review, completed in February 1941, and to the replacement of Harker that April.[4]
External Resources
- NameBase: Harker O.Allen (Jasper)
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Security Service, Oswald Allen Harker, accessed 8 November 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Former Directors General, MI5, accessed 8 July 2009.
- ↑ Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, section B, introduction, “MI5 and its Staff – Survival and Revival”.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Christopher Andrew, Defend the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009, section C, introduction, “The Security Service and its Wartime Staff: From Prison to Palace”.