Mansfield Cumming
| Sir Mansfield Smith-Cumming | |
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| Image |  Mansfield Smith-Cumming, c.1900-1920 |
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| Occupation | Royal Navy officer; first Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service |
| Known for | Founding head ('C') of MI6, 1909–1923 |
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Mansfield Cumming was the first head of the organisation which later became the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6).
In 1909, Captain Mansfield Cumming of the Royal Navy was appointed head of the Naval section of the new Secret Service Bureau. In 1916, this section became MI1c within the War Office's Directorate of Military Intelligence.[1]
At his death in 1923, Cumming was succeeded by Rear Admiral Hugh Sinclair.[2]
Legacy
SIS says Cumming was the original 'C', in 1909. Its Chiefs still write in green ink, as Cumming did, and its intelligence reports are still called 'CX' after 'Cumming's Exclusives'.[3]
The service's authorised history, by Keith Jeffery, covers Cumming's founding of the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau and his time running it during the First World War.[4]
Notes
- ↑ Michael Smith, The Spying Game, Politico's, 2003, p.67.
- ↑ Stephen Dorril, MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Touchstone, 2002, p.4.
- ↑ Our Chief, Secret Intelligence Service, accessed 16 October 2026.
- ↑ Keith Jeffery, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909–1949, Bloomsbury, 2010.