How 'spying' in Rusper became the birth of MI5
Updated Tuesday, 26th January 2021, 3:13 pm Until October 1909, Britain had been without a professional, dedicated spy and counter-spy organisation, despite rising paranoia over German militarism since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The military had been reduced in strength as armies on the continent were expanding theirs. The shock by which a small but technologically superior Prussian army managed to invade and defeat France resulted in outrage over the state of Britain’s own military. Shortly after the Prussian victory, George Tomkyns Chesney, a former captain in the Royal Engineers, ...
Source: worthingherald.co.uk