Chronology
1883 The Special Irish Branch of the Metropolitan Police is estab-
lished.
1884 The War Office intelligence division is established at Queen
Anne’s Gate.
1885 Khartoum falls.
1886 Central Asia Intelligence is established at Meshed by Colonel
C. S. Maclean.
1887 The post of director of military intelligence (DMI) is created.
1888 First Official Secrets Act is passed. General Sir Henry Bracken-
bury is appointed the first DMI.
1889 Ten intelligence officers are sent to South Africa ‘‘on special
service.’’
1891 General Brackenbury is appointed director of the Indian Intelli-
gence Department.
1892 The Walsall bomb factory is raided.
1894 Thomas Beach publishesTwenty-Five Years in the Secret Ser-
vice. The Royal Observatory plot is foiled. Sir John Ardagh is
appointed director of intelligence.
1895 Lord Wolseley as commander-in-chief reforms the army and in-
troduces an Intelligence Branch.
1898 The Field Intelligence Department is created at the War Office.
1899 The Pigeon Service is established in South Africa.
1901 The Committee of Imperial Defence is established.
1902 The post of DMI is abolished in a War Office reorganization.
1903 John Littlechild and William Melville retire from Special
Branch.
1905 Communists Vladimir Uljanov and Leib Bronstein (Lenin and
Trotsky) speak in an Islington pub.
1909 Patrick Quinn is appointed head of Special Branch. The Secret
Service Bureau is established.
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