Home Intelligence
Home Intelligence was a division of the
Initial planning
The Ministry of Information understood that its success would rest on its ability to measure morale and had included plans for a ‘collecting division’ since July 1936. However these functions remained under-developed by pre-war planning and there were few means of gauging public opinion when the Second World War began.[1]
Trial surveys with
The BBC producer Mary Adams was appointed director of a re-formed Home Intelligence division in November 1939. Her division started work in February 1940.
Methods
Home Intelligence aimed to provide the government with ‘A continuous flow of reliable information’ that would act as a ‘barometer of public opinion’.[3] It used both qualitative and quantitative research methods. The division compiled daily reports on morale from 18 May to 27 September, and weekly summaries from 27 September until 29 December 1944. Each report was based on material submitted by Regional Intelligence Officers, Mass Observation reports, BBC listener surveys, questionnaires and secret sources such as postal censorship.[4] Home Intelligence also undertook more detailed reports on particular subjects and used the semi-autonomous
Findings
The daily, and later weekly, reports produced by the Home Intelligence Division were circulated within the
Criticisms
Home Intelligence was the subject of recurrent political controversies. The best known example occurred in July 1940 when information about the previously secret Wartime Social Survey was obtained by the editor of the
Post-war
Home Intelligence was gradually wound down after 27 December 1944 and was officially abolished on 31 August 1945. However the Wartime Social Survey was maintained and its functions are now part of the Office for National Statistics.
See also
- Ministry of Information (United Kingdom) - United Kingdom government department created during World War II
- Mass Observation- United Kingdom social research organisation founded in 1937.
External links
References
- ^ McLaine, Ian (1979). Ministry of Morale. London: George Allen and Unwin. p. 49.
- ^ McLaine, Ian (1979). Ministry of Morale. London: George Allen and Unwin. pp. 49–50.
- ^ McLaine, Ian (1979). Ministry of Morale. London: George Allen and Unwin. p. 50.
- ^ Addison, Paul, and Jeremy Crang (2011). Listening to Britain. London: Vintage Books. pp. xiv.
- ^ Irving, Henry, ‘Plotting Morale in World War Two’, Being Human Festival, 15 Nov 2014. See http://www.moidigital.ac.uk/
- ^ Addison, Paul, and Jeremy Crang (2011). Listening to Britain. London: Vintage Books. pp. xiv.
- ^ The National Archives (TNA), INF 1/290, "Report on History, Functions and Administration of Home Intelligence Division", c. 1944, p. 6.
- ^ Mackay, Robert (2002). Half the Battle: Civilian Morale in Britain during the Second World War. Manchester: Manchester University Press. p. 2.
- ^ TNA, INF 1/293, Home Intelligence Special Reports, 1941-44.
- ^ Addison, Paul; Crang, Jeremy (2011). Listening to Britain. London: Vintage Books. pp. xvi.