With t6his work Lt. Col Thoms G. Ferguson (USA) becomes the first author to publish in English a detailed and scholarly history of a modern military intelligence establishment, in this case, Britain's department for both strategic and tactical military intelligence from 1870-to 1914. Colonel Fergusson skillfully narrates how the Intelligence Department at the War office was formed and how it progressed. He traces its revival under Hendy Brackenbury, it role in the South African War, and the development of a field intelligence system on the eve of World War I. He show how the size, structural methods and relative importance of that intelligence department changed in the decades between the Franco-Prussian War and World =War I. Finally he evaluated the readiness of the Intelligence Department for the war.

Includes index. Includes maps of: British Empire in 1870; Afghanistan and the Northwest Frontier of British India, circa 1880; South Africa in 1899; British Empire in 1914.

List of Illustrations -- Foreword -- Preface -- Abbreviations -- Note on Sources -- I. Introduction: Intelligence and the Empire -- II - The Origins of the Intelligence Branch at the War Office -- III - Charles Wilson and the Birth of an an Intelligence Department at the War Office, 1870-1873 --IV - Under the Shadow of a Bear: The Rise and Fall of the Intelligence Branch, 1873-1885 --V- Henry Brackenbury and the Revival of War Office Intelligence, 1886 - 1895 -- VI - From the Intelligence Division to the General Staff: The Sought African War and War Office Intelligence, 1896-1904 -- VII - The British Tactical Intelligence System in the Nineteenth Century -- VIII - British Tactical Intelligence in the South African War, 1899-1902 -- IX- David Henderson and the Tactical Intelligence System, 1902-1914 -- X - Preparation for a European War: British Strategic Intelligence, 1904-1914 --XI - Conclusion: British Military Intelligence on the Eve of the Great War -- Bibliography -- Index