Claude Dansey
Claude Dansey (spook) | ||||||||||||||
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Born | 10 September 1876 Kensington, England | |||||||||||||
Died | 11 June 1947 (Age 70) Bath, England | |||||||||||||
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Family background
Dansey was born in 1876 into a dysfunctional family of nine children, Dansey and his siblings were subjected to military discipline at the hands of their soldier father (Edward Mashiter Dansey), with punishments that included beatings even for minor misbehavior, their mother being an alcoholic. He was educated at Wellington College.
Career
Dansey joined the British Army at the age of 20, serving in South Africa during the Boer War, because his father would not have allowed him any other vocation. He was recruited by MI5 and put in charge of "port intelligence" and the surveillance of civilian passengers during World War I. He began his career in intelligence in 1900, and remained active until his death. He was assistant chief of the Secret Intelligence Service known as ACSS, of the British intelligence agency commonly known as MI6 and a member of the London Controlling Section.