View source for Percy Sillitoe

{{Short description|Director general of MI5 from 1946 to 1953}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=April 2012}}
{{Infobox spy
|honorific_prefix = [[Sir]]
|honorific_suffix = {{Post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KBE|DL}}
|name         = Percy Sillitoe
| nickname =
| image = Percy Sillitoe, 1930s.jpg
| caption = Sillitoe in the 1930s
| allegiance = [[United Kingdom]] [[File:Flag of the United Kingdom.svg|20px]]
| service = [[MI5]]
| serviceyears = 1946–1953
| rank = [[Director General of MI5]]
| operation = 
| awards = [[Order of the British Empire|KBE]]
| birth_date = 22 May 1888
| birth_place = [[Tulse Hill]], [[London]], [[United Kingdom]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1962|4|5|1888|5|22}}
| death_place = [[Eastbourne]], [[East Sussex]], [[United Kingdom]]
| nationality = [[British People|British]]
| occupation = [[Police Officer]]
}}

'''Sir Percy Joseph Sillitoe''' [[Order of the British Empire|KBE]] [[Deputy lieutenant|DL]] (22 May 1888 – 5 April 1962) was a [[chief constable]] of several police forces. He changed the role of radios, civilian staff, and women police officers within the police. He was later [[Director General of MI5]], the [[United Kingdom]]'s internal security service, from 1946 to 1953.

==Life==
Born in London, Sillitoe was educated at [[St Paul's Cathedral School]] (then St Paul's Cathedral Choir School).<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/hidden-life-of-the-hammer-1003972|title=Hidden Life Of The Hammer|date=3 January 2009|newspaper=Daily Record|access-date=1 November 2021}}</ref> By 1908, he had become a Trooper in the [[British South Africa Police]] and, in 1911, transferred to the [[Northern Rhodesia Police]]. During the First World War he served in the [[East African campaign (World War I)|East African campaign]] with the Northern Rhodesia Police. In 2009 it was revealed that Sillitoe had had a relationship with Mary Museba, a local woman of the [[Bemba people]], from the [[Mbala District|Abercorn District]] of [[Northern Rhodesia]]; they had a son, John Alexander Sillitoe, born in 1918.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.richardgilbert.ca/achart/public_html/articles/publications/sillitoe.htm|title=Sir Percy Sillitoe of MI5 and his African descendants|access-date=18 November 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Cockerill|first=Art|title= Secrets & Skeletons - A biography of Sir Percy Sillitoe|year=2013|publisher=|isbn=}}</ref>

After serving as a political officer in [[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]] until 1920, he returned to England with his family.<ref>{{cite book|title=Spooks the Unofficial History of MI5 From the First Atom Spy to 7/7 1945-2009|first=Thomas|last=Hennessey}}</ref>

In 1923 he was appointed Chief Constable of Chesterfield, a position he held for the next two years. After a further year as [[Chief Constable of the East Riding of Yorkshire]] in 1925, he became in 1926 the Chief Constable of Sheffield, where he was credited with authorising "reasonable force" to break the hold of criminal gangs.<ref name=oo>(2004-09-23). Sillitoe, Sir Percy Joseph (1888–1962), police officer and intelligence officer. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Retrieved 5 Dec. 2017, from [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-36092 link]</ref>

He was Chief Constable of [[City of Glasgow Police]] from 1931 to 1943, when he was credited with breaking the power of the notorious [[Glasgow razor gangs]], made infamous in the novel ''[[No Mean City]]''. During his time as [[chief constable]] of Glasgow, he was also credited with the introduction of wireless radios allowing communication between headquarters and vehicles (which had previously relied completely upon the use of [[police box]]es), use of civilians in police-related roles, and the introduction of compulsory retirement after 30 years service. He is further credited with the introduction of the ''[[Sillitoe tartan]]'', which is more commonly recognized as the checkered pattern, usually black-and-white, on police cap bands, originally based on that used by several [[Scottish regiment]]s on their [[Balmoral bonnet|Balmoral]] and [[Glengarry]] headdresses.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/page.php?PgID=659002&ClubID=1710|title=Chief Constable Sir Percy Sillitoe|date=5 August 2017 |publisher=Totary Club|access-date=17 June 2018}}</ref>

In 1944 Sillitoe was made the chief constable of Kent and he employed [[Barbara Denis de Vitre]] to lead the women's force. When she arrived Kent had two policewomen and the following year there were nearly 150.<ref name="ok">{{Cite ODNB|title=Vitré, Barbara Mary Denis de (1905–1960), police officer|year= 2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-97986 |language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/97986|isbn= 978-0-19-861412-8}}</ref>

Sillitoe went on to head [[MI5]]. His reputation was damaged by the 1951 [[defection]] to the [[Soviet Union]] of the spies [[Guy Burgess]] and [[Donald Duart Maclean]], and by the investigation afterwards, which showed that MI5 had been unaware and slow to act.<ref>''Anthony Blunt: His Lives'', by [[Miranda Carter]], 2001.</ref>

He was made a [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in 1936 and [[Knight Bachelor|knighted]] in the [[1942 New Year Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=35399 |supp=y |page=2 |date=30 December 1941}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* P. Sillitoe, ''Cloak without dagger'', 1955
* A. W. Cockerill, ''Sir Percy Sillitoe'', 1975
* R. Deacon, ''The greatest treason: the bizarre story of Hollis, Liddell and Mountbatten'', rev. edn 1990
* The Times, ''Obituary'', 6 April 1962
* A. W. Cockerill, "Secrets & Skeletons - A biography of Sir Percy Sillitoe", 15 Jun. 2013

==External links==
* [http://www.theglasgowstory.com/image.php?inum=TGSA05304 The Glasgow Story – Chief Constable Sir Percy Sillitoe]

{{s-start}}
{{S-gov}}
{{succession box |
 before=[[David Petrie|Sir David Petrie]]|
 title=[[Director General of MI5]] |
 years=1946–1953|
 after=[[Dick White|Sir Dick White]]| 
}}
{{s-end}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sillitoe, Percy}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Tulse Hill]]
[[Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:British Chief Constables]]
[[Category:Directors General of MI5]]
[[Category:British colonial police officers]]
[[Category:Colonial Administrative Service officers]]
[[Category:British South Africa Police officers]]
[[Category:People educated at St. Paul's Cathedral School]]
[[Category:Deputy lieutenants of Glasgow]]
[[Category:Knights Bachelor]]