Major-General George Macdonogh (1865-1942). Director of Military Intelligence
George Macdonogh, former Chief of the British Intelligence Service
General Sir George Macdonogh, the Director of British Military Intelligence
Sir George Macdonogh, wartime British Director of Military Intelligence
Colonel (Sir) George Macdonogh was appointed Director of Military Intelligence (the first since the position had been abolished in 1904)
General Sir George Macdonogh, the head of Army Intelligence
Major-General Sir George Macdonogh, the Director of Military Intelligence (DM1) at the War Office
Head of Intelligence on the General Staff, Colonel George Macdonogh
Major-General Macdonogh became Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office
A less optimistic view was taken by the Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office, Brig.-Gen. G. M. W. Macdonogh, who held that the enemy’s divisions had not suffered any serious decrease in fighting power, and that a Russian secession would indeed allow Germany to outmatch Allied rifle and gun strength on the Western Front. From his Intelligence the C.I.G.S. had advised the War Cabinet “that offensive operations on our front would offer no chance of success; and our best course would be to remain on the defensive, strengthen our positions, economize our reserves in manpower and material, and hope that the balance would be eventually redressed by American assistance.”
Eventually NILI came to be regarded as the Brit’s best and most reliable source of intelligence. This is suggested by Major General George Macdonogh, Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office, who gave a lecture in 1919 at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich: “You will no doubt remember the great campaign of Lord Allenby in Palestine and perhaps you are surprised at the daring of his actions. Someone who is looking from the side lines, lacking knowledge about the situation, is likely to think that Allenby took unwarranted risks. That is not true. For Allenby knew with certainty from his intelligence (in Palestine) of all the preparations and all the movements of his enemy. All the cards of his enemy were revealed to him, and so he could play his hand with complete confidence. Under these conditions, victory was certain before he began.
Adjutant General: 1918, Lt-General Sir George Macdonogh
Until the end of 1915, the Intelligence Section of G.H.Q. (France), and the Director of Special Intelligence at the War Office, made somewhat casual efforts in the direction of propaganda at home, abroad and amongst the enemy forces, and did more in the direction of acquiring information about the propagandist activities of the enemy. The supreme military authorities, however, either attached little value to propaganda, or were more absorbed by their directly combatant functions, and gave no encouragement to the development of propaganda. In the beginning of 1916 Gen. Sir George Macdonogh returned from France to become Director of Intelligence on the Imperial General Staff. Thenceforward until the end of the war, a branch of his directorate was devoted to propaganda with continually increasing intensity. Under his stimulation and with the encouragement and the active assistance of Brig.-Gen. Cockerill, his second-incommand, a small group of men, half of them regular officers and half distinguished civilians with temporary commissions, a very large and successful organization was built up. It worked in close cooperation with General Headquarters at the various fronts and with the propagandist agencies in England. Its command of material drawn from all the branches, open and secret, of the Directorate of Military Intelligence, and its close connexion with the fighting services, gave it very large opportunities, of which it took full advantage; on the other hand, the fact that it was a branch of the War Office, run on strict military lines, prevented the full extent of its activities being known, and the credit of much that it accomplished was assigned to organizations more accustomed to work before the footlights.
Macdonogh, George M. W., Sir, K. C. M. G., C. B., lieutenant general, British Army, adjutant general to the forces.
ATTEMPTS TO SET UP ONE ALLIED S.S. 33. The goal of one Allied service in Holland had still to be kept in view by all concerned, and eventually a full representative meeting was called in London on the 31st August 1918, presided over by Major-General Sir G. Macdonogh, Director of Military Intelligence, and attended by:
General Boucabeille, French Military Attaché at The Hague
Lt.Col P. Wallner, 2eme Bureau, Ministere de Guerre, Paris
Commandant Smets, Belgian G.Q.G.
Col. R.Van Deman, American Army
Captain Mansfield Cumming, C.B., M.I.1c., War Office
Lt. Col. R.J.Drake, 1 (b), G.H.Q.
Considerable progress was made, after a lunch given in honour of these gentlemen, towards the desired end.
The Military Correspondence of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, 1918-22 - Page 392
Macdonogh, George Mark Watson (1865-1942). Entered Army (Royal Engineers), 1884; barrister-at-law, Lincoln's Inn, 1897; served in BEF, 1914-16; Maj.-Gen. 1916; DMI, 1916-18; AG, Sept. ...
Gen., 1910; knighted, 1912; GOC Belfast, 1914; AG, BEF, 1914-16; AG to the Forces, 1916-18; Commissioner Metropolitan Police, Sept. ...
GOC Ireland, 1920-23; created Baronet, 1923. Maistre, Paul Andre Marie (1858-1922), French General. Ge'ne'ral de Brigade, 1914; CGS, 4th Army, 1914; ...
The Military Correspondence of Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, 1918-22 - Page 347
Sir Nevil Macready, the Adjutant-General, replaced Sir Edward Henry as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. See GW Reynolds and A. Judge, The Night the Police went on Strike, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968.
26 On 30 August 10000 of the 19000 Metropolitan Police went on strike in support of the right to form a union, and for improved pay and conditions.
27 Wilson never got on very well with Macdonogh. This seems to have stemmed, in part at least, from the 'Curragh Crisis' in March 1914 when Macdonogh, subordinate to Wilson in the Directorate of Military Operations, had taken a studiously neutral line with regard to events in Ireland, ...
Winston S. Churchill - Page 13
GOC Belfast, 1914. Adjutant-General, BEF, 1914-16. Adjutant-General to the Forces, 1916-18. Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, 1918-20. Commanded the Forces in Ireland, 1920-2. ...
Adjutant-General to the Forces in 1918, preceded by Nevil Macready.
ROBERTSON: 3/2/24 1915 Nov 3
Private letter from Robertson to Lt Gen Sir Archibald (James) Murray, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, enclosing a memorandum by Brig Gen George Mark Watson Macdonogh, Head of Intelligence, British Armies in France, giving details of the movement of German troops from Russia to the Western Front and the Serbian Front, and concluding that the German Army intends to mount a Western Front offensive directed towards Arras-Amiens. 5pp.
(At Etreux Military Cemetary): A Celtic cross, similar to that in position at Killarney, was erected in the orchard, which was the scene of the last stand of the Battalion on that memorable August 27th, 1914. The cross is over 22 feet high and the plinth bears suitable inscriptions on all four sides. The funds for its erection were collected mainly by the 2nd Battalion Munster Fusiliers and by Captain Styles, brother of Lieutenant F. Styles, one of the officers who lies buried in the orchard.
The Cross was unveiled by Lieut.-General Sir George Macdonogh, K.C.B., K.C.M.G., Adjutant-General, on June 4th, 1922, in the presence of Brigadier-General R. C. Boyle, C.B., C.M.G., Colonel A. M. Bent, C.M.G., C.B.E., Lieut.-Colonel H. S. Jervis, M.C., and Major H. B. Tonson-Rye, D.S.O., all of whom had commanded the 2nd Battalion.
...The unveiling was performed on June 4th by Lieut.-General Sir G. Macdonogh, Adjutant-General of the Forces, who made an impressive oration in perfect French. Four of the Battalion buglers blew the “Last Post” at the conclusion of the ceremony. The party were most hospitably entertained by the Maire of Etreux, and returned to Tidworth on the 8th.
