43577 Brigadier William Francis JEFFRIES, CBE DSO, Intelligence Corps

Discussion in 'British Army Units - Others' started by Quarterfinal, Feb 12, 2022.

  1. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    The image below, from an intelligence officers’ course photograph taken in March 1940, shows Major William Francis Jeffries DSO, one of the Directing Staff. On 19 July 1940, Army Order 112 formally authorised the (re)formation of the Army’s Intelligence Corps, with Jeffries subsequently being promoted Colonel and appointed its first Commandant, using offices in Pembroke College.

    upload_2022-2-12_20-46-34.jpeg

    An interesting character. A brief biography is:

    Born 1891, educated at Downside and Trinity College, Cambridge;

    Commissioned into Royal Dublin Fusiliers (Special Reserve) 1914; served with Royal Dublin Fusiliers 1914-1918 on Western Front including Second Ypres 1915, Somme 1916; Hunt’s Force (German Offensive March 1918). Major 1917; DSO 1918;

    Secretary to HM Legation to Vatican, Rome 1919-1920;

    Intelligence Staff, Dublin and Horse Guards 1920-1921;

    Major, Reserve of Officers 1922;

    Administrative Officer, Southern Nigeria 1923-1927;

    Major, General Staff 1938;

    Secretary of Junior Carlton Club 1938-1958;

    General Staff (Special Employment) War Office 1939-1940;

    Colonel 1940, Commandant Intelligence Corps 1940-1942;

    Brigadier 1943, Deputy Head of Political Warfare Executive’s Middle East and Central Mediterranean Forces Department 1943-1945; CBE 1945;

    Died 1969.


    Some of his papers are archived in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King’s College in London (GB 99 KCLMA Jeffries) and include:

    A Commandant's address to newly commissioned Intelligence Officers 1942;

    Typescript Directorate of Army Psychiatry Research Memorandum No 11/02/9A, by Lt Col Henry Victor Dicks*, Royal Army Medical Corps, entitled 'The psychological foundations of the Wehrmacht', 1944;

    Papers on the surrender and occupation of Italy, 1943-1945, including typescript drafts in English, German and Italian of announcement by FM Hon Sir Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander, Mediterranean Theatre of War, on the surrender of German and Fascist Republican forces in Italy, 1945;

    Typescript memorandum entitled 'Note on documents taken from Mussolini by Italian partisans and handed to Brigadier Jeffries on 18 May 1945.

    * HV Dicks also separately authored: “Personality Traits and National Socialist Ideology: A war-time study of German Prisoners of War.”
     
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  2. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

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  3. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    upload_2023-9-27_0-21-30.jpeg

    and the (Officer of the) Legion of Merit:
    upload_2023-9-27_0-22-29.jpeg

    By way of closing a loop, the citation for his earlier DSO (1918 as a Captain, Acting Major) with Hunt Force read: 'For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Although suffering from the effects of gas poisoning at a time when a portion of the line was penetrated, he mustered all scattered troops, and with skilful leadership led them forward and restored the line. His example of courage and contempt of danger had the most inspiring influence on the men.'
     
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  4. Quarterfinal

    Quarterfinal Well-Known Member

    William Francis Jeffries medals:
    upload_2023-11-3_19-5-21.jpeg
    are at the Military Intelligence Museum:
    https://www.militaryintelligencemuseum.org/items-6/jeffries-wf,-brigadier-
    which will be closed to the public from 1st December 2023 to 4th March 2024.

    Jeffries supportive views on the:
    from his WW1 experiences are briefly referred to at the foot of page 300 of a thesis:
    https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/2934144/DX189050.pdf
     
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