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SIS OR MI6. WHAT'S IN A NAME?

The origins of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) are to be found in the Foreign Section of the Secret
Service Bureau, established by the Committee of Imperial Defence in October 1909. The Secret Service
Bureau was soon abbreviated to 'Secret Service', 'SS Bureau' or even 'SS'. The first head of the Foreign
Section, Captain Sir Mansfield Cumming RN, signed himself 'MC' or 'C' in green ink. Thus began the
long tradition of the head of the Service adopting the initial 'C' as his symbol.
Cumming sought to ensure that the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau maintained a degree
of autonomy but the War Office, in particular, managed to exercise extensive control over his actions.
The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 brought a need for even closer cooperation with military
intelligence organisations within the War Office. The most significant manifestation of this was the virtual
integration of the Foreign Section within the Military Intelligence Directorate. Thus, for much of the war,
Cumming's organisation was known as MI1(c). This arrangement did not sit well with Cumming who
regretted this diminution of his independence. As a naval officer he was less than pleased at appearing
under the auspices of the War Office.
The debate over the future structure of British Intelligence continued at length after the end of hostilities
but Cumming managed to engineer the return of the Service to Foreign Office control. At this time the
organisation was known in Whitehall by a variety of titles including the 'Foreign Intelligence Service', the
'Secret Service', 'MI1(c)', the 'Special Intelligence Service' and even 'C's organisation'. Around 1920, it
began increasingly to be referred to as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), a title that it has continued
to use to the present day and which was enshrined in statute in the Intelligence Services Act 1994.
'MI6' has become an almost interchangeable title for SIS, at least in the minds of those outside the
Service. The origins of the use of this other title are to be found in the late 1930s when it was adopted as
a flag of convenience for SIS. It was used extensively during the Second World War, especially if an
organisational link needed to be made with MI5 (the Security Service). Although 'MI6' fell into official
disuse years ago, many writers and journalists continue to use it to describe SIS.

The Security Service has had a variety of names, most famously MI5,

since it was established in 1909. This has often led to confusion about what the Service has been called
at various points in its history.
This page provides a quick reference to the evolution of the Security Service over the past century.
October 1909
The Security Service is founded as the Home Section of the Secret Service Bureau, under Captain
Vernon Kell. (See "Origins.")
April 1914
The Home Section of the Secret Service Bureau becomes a subsection of the War Office's Directorate of
Military Operations, section 5 (MO5). It is given the name MO5(g).
September 1916
MO5(g) becomes MI5 (Military Intelligence section 5).
1929
MI5 is renamed as the Defence Security Service.
1931
The Defence Security Service becomes the Security Service, the name by which it is still known today.
However, "MI5" is still widely used as a short alternative to our official name.
See also "SIS or MI6: What's in a name?" on the Secret Intelligence Service's website. You can read
more about the history of the Security Service in our history pages.

Apart from MI6, were there any other MI Sections?

Yes. In the First World War there were eventually ten MI (Military Intelligence) sections of the War Office.
By the end of the Second World War there were seventeen. During the First World War the actual
number and precise functions of the sections varied almost year to year to match the needs of the war
effort. Few had anything to do with secret intelligence or covert intelligence operations. The same was
true during the Second World War. In both World Wars the forerunners of all three modern British
intelligence and security agencies were to be found among the MI sections.
At the outbreak of the First World War, the Foreign Section of the Secret Service Bureau under
Commander Mansfield Cumming, whilst still funded by the Foreign Office, was brought under the
supervision of the War Office Department of Military Operations. This had assumed overall responsibility
for all of the British Army's intelligence collection during wartime. Up to the end of 1915 the Service was
listed under the Directorate of Special Operations under MO Section 6. MO6c was Cumming's
organisation and MO6b exercised many of the duties that eventually fell to GCHQ. In the same
directorate, at least during most of 1915, was MO5, which became the Security Service.
In January 1916 the Directorate of Military Intelligence was created and MO6 retained the same
functions with the new title MI1. MO6c became MI1c whilst MO6b became MI1b. MO5 became MI5. Of
the other sections in the MI structure, MI9 was most closely associated with MI1c. Although its duties
included postal censorship, MI9 was also responsible for the provision of false documentation.
The First World War MI section known as MI6 was one of those that had very little to do with SIS.
Instead it dealt with legal affairs, finance and much else that could not be easily fitted into any other MI
sections. Although its specific functions changed more between January 1916 and the end of the war
than almost any of the other MI sections, at no stage was it engaged in collecting secret intelligence or
mounting covert intelligence operations.
With the end of hostilities, the Directorate of Military Operations and Intelligence downsized its
intelligence effort considerably although it retained its wartime structure. In 1921, SIS, which had never
fitted perfectly into the military organisation, returned to its pre-war place under the auspices of the
Foreign Office but was still often referred to as MI1c. Confusingly, there continued to be a small War
Office MI1c section with the role of liaising with SIS.
For much of the interwar period the MI structure that had existed in 1918/19 was maintained. But as the
world slid inexorably towards war again, the MI structure was both revised and expanded. By the end of
the Second World War there were seventeen MI Sections in the War Office (numbered 1-19 - 13 and 18
do not appear to have been used). Once again, most were performing purely military roles in contrast to
the secret activities of SIS, the Security Service and what later became GCHQ.
By the late 1930s the War Office MI1c liaison section had become MI6 and increasingly the new title
came to be commonly applied to the secret organisation. Of the other sixteen MI sections created by the
end of the war, SIS worked most closely, as it had during the First World War, with MI9. But the Second
World War MI9 had entirely different responsibilities from its predecessor. It dealt with prisoners of war,
escape and evasion. SIS officers staffed part of MI9 and ran its clandestine escape lines in northern
Europe. Other sections, such as MI4, were customers for SIS intelligence.