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M. R. D. Foot | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Foot in 2011 | |
| Born | Michael Richard Daniell Foot (1919-12-14)14 December 1919 London, England |
| Died | 18 February 2012(2012-02-18) (aged 92) Cambridge,Cambridgeshire, England |
| Children | 2 |
| Academic background | |
| Education | Winchester College |
| Alma mater | New College, Oxford |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Historian |
| Sub-discipline | |
| Institutions | University of Oxford Victoria University of Manchester |
Michael Richard Daniell Foot,CBE, TD (14 December 1919 – 18 February 2012) was a British political and military historian, and formerBritish Armyintelligence officer with theSpecial Operations Executive during theSecond World War.[1][2] Foot was the author of the official history about the Special Operations Executive,SOE in France.
The son of a career soldier, Foot was educated atWinchester College andNew College, Oxford,[3] where he became involved romantically withIris Murdoch.
Foot joined theBritish Army on the outbreak of theSecond World War and was commissioned into aRoyal Engineers searchlightbattalion. In 1941 searchlight units transferred to theRoyal Artillery. Hisservice number was 85455. By 1942, he was serving atCombined Operations Headquarters, but wanting to see action he joined theSAS as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France afterD-Day. He was for a time aprisoner of war, and was severely injured during one of his attempts to escape. For his service with theFrench Resistance he was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded theCroix de Guerre. He ended the war as amajor. After the war he remained in theTerritorial Army, transferring to theIntelligence Corps in 1950.
After the war Foot taught atOxford University for eight years before becoming Professor of Modern History atManchester University in 1967. His experiences during the war gave him a lifelong interest in the European resistance movements, intelligence matters and the experiences of prisoners of war. This led him to become the official historian ofSOE, with privileged access to its records, allowing him to write some of the first, and still definitive, accounts of its wartime work, especially in France. Even so,SOE in France took four years to get clearance.[4]
Foot was very distantly related to his namesakeMichael Foot. He was at one time married to the British philosopherPhilippa Foot (née Bosanquet), the granddaughter of U.S. PresidentGrover Cleveland.[5] Foot's second wife was Elizabeth King, with whom he had a son and a daughter, the historianSarah Foot.[6] In 1972 Foot married Mirjam Romme, who under her married name became a distinguished historian of bookbinding.[3] Foot has the distinction of being the only real person to be named in the spy novels ofJohn LeCarre.[7]
Foot was appointed aCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2001. He also received theTerritorial Decoration for Long Service in theTerritorial Army.[3]
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| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Order of the British Empire (CBE) | Commander, Civil Division, 2001 |
| 1939–1945 Star | |
| France and Germany Star | |
| Defence Medal | |
| War Medal 1939–1945 | WithMentioned in dispatches Oakleaf |
| Territorial Decoration (TD) | 12 years service in theTerritorial Army |
| Order of Orange-Nassau | Officer, Awarded by theKingdom of the Netherlands |
| Legion of Honour | Knight, Awarded byFrance |
| Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 | With Silver Star, awarded by France |
 |
| Year | Review article | Work(s) reviewed |
|---|---|---|
| 2005 | English Historical Review, V120 (2005): 1103–04 | Thaddeus Holt (2004).The Deceivers.Weidenfeld & Nicolson.ISBN 0-297-84804-6. |
| 2008 | Foot, M. R. D. (4 October 2008)."Stage effects in earnest".The Spectator.308 (9397): 44. Archived fromthe original on 4 December 2008. Retrieved23 December 2008. | Rankin, Nicholas (2008).Churchill's wizards. Faber and Faber. |
