Intelligence Corps
The Intelligence Corps (also known as 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.
Although the first proposals to create one came in 1905, the first Intelligence Corps was formed in 1914 and originally included only officers and their servants. The unit was rapidly run down after the First World War and was finally disbanded in 1929. On 19 July 1940 a new Intelligence Corps was created by Army Order 112 and has existed since that time. On 1 February 1985 the corps was officially declared an 'Arm' (combat support) instead of a 'Service' (rear support).
Their headquarters, formerly at Maresfield, East Sussex and 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.
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 Operators Military Intelligence, with the possibility of specialising as Operator Military Intelligence (Linguist) later.
The main formation is 1 Military Intelligence Brigade. 1 MI Brigade has responsibility for three regular and two Territorial Army battalions:
- 1 Military Intelligence Battalion - Rheindahlen
- 2 Military Intelligence Battalion - Netheravon
- 3 Military Intelligence Battalion (Volunteer) - London
- 4 Military Intelligence Battalion - Bulford
- 5 Military Intelligence Battalion (Volunteer) - Formation announced in Dec 2004)
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.
Members of the Intelligence Corps
- John Buchan, author and politician
- Jabron Hashmi, first Muslim British soldier killed in Afghanistan
- Mike Jackson, formerly Chief of the General Staff
- Bernard Lewis, historian of Islam
- Anthony Powell, author
- Laurens van der Post, author
- Peter Alan Rayner, author
