Claude Dansey

Claude Edward Marjoribanks Dansey, (10 September 1876 – 11 June 1947), also known as Colonel Z, Haywood, Uncle Claude, and Z, was a British police constable, soldier, and intelligence officer who served in several foreign wars for the British government. Despite having served HM in intelligence duties on every continent before the First World War – North Borneo, Mexico, Cape Colony, the United States, and Canada, among others – he is most well-known as the creator of the interwar Z Organisation, later becoming the Assistant Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) during the Second World War. He was also a member of the London Controlling Section. He began his career in intelligence in 1895, and remained active until his death.

Many of the staff at OSS/London felt that he was anti-American, but he was one of the few men directly responsible for the creation of the American intelligence system itself, and counted among his closest friends William J. Donovan, Allen Dulles and Ralph Van Deman. Some of his female coworkers felt that he was misogynistic because he would not hire many female agents, but the first female he ever sent undercover, Edith Cavell, was tortured and killed, and he felt shame about that for the rest of his life. Many of the personnel at the SOE felt that he was biased against the nature of their outfit, but Dansey was one of the men directly responsible for the SOE's creation, and its first director, Frank Nelson, had been one of his own Z agents. By the 1940s, having seen British intelligence networks collapse around the world, Dansey had developed trust issues and paranoia, which led to his negative reputation – but also kept him alive when so many of his friends were killed.