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Colonel Valentine Vivian CMG DSO MVO, (1880 - February 1 1948), was the first head of MI6's counter-espionage unit, Section V. In the mid-1920s, agency director Sir Hugh Sinclair, the second "C", wanted to absorb MI5, the UK's counter-intelligence agency, into the SIS; when his attempt was finally rejected, in 1925, he formed the CE section, later (1939) renamed "Section V".

Between 1925 and 1931, organisational rivalries proliferated with Vivian's CE section and the domestic intelligence agency, MI5, as well as with Scotland Yard. A network of domestic agents known as the 'Casuals' had provided information to CE section. In 1930, after a series of meetings of the Special Services Committee, the Casuals were transferred to MI5, where they became "M Section"; many still provided the SIS with information.

Under Vivian, Section V focused on the activities of the Comintern, which Vivian initially "regarded ... as a criminal conspiracy rather than a clandestine political movement". Vivian was the author of the 1932 report (FO 1093/92) on the Hilaire Noulens case, though his authorship was only revealed in 1994.

At one point early in Vivian's career, he served in the Department of Criminal Intelligence in India.

Among his various exploits, Vivian is known for having recruited the notorious double agent Kim Philby for SIS.

Toward the end of his career, he rose to the position of Deputy Chief of Service. .

External Links

• Site on UK's wartime Special Communications Unit

Discusses SIS director Sir Stewart Menzies's reorganisation of units into "Headquarters" and "Foreign" divisions, including Section V

• UK National Archives releases mentioning Vivian (provides abstracts but documents must be requested directly)
• Painting of Vivian and his wife Aline
• Peerage listing for Vivian, with information on his father, wife and children

References

• The Records of the Permanent Under-Secretary's Department: Liaison between the Foreign Office and British Secret Intelligence, 1873-1939, UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, March 2005

See, in particular, "The Secret Service Committee, 1919-1931", Gill Bennett, Chief Historian, Foreign & Commonwealth Office; and "The Secret Intelligence Service and the Case of Hilaire Noulens", Christopher Baxter, Historian, Foreign & Commonwealth Office.

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