Francis Davidson

Major General Francis Henry Norman Davidson CB DSO MC (1892 – 1972) was a British Army officer who served as the Director of Military Intelligence for much of the Second World War.

Davidson was educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. From Woolwich he commissioned into the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1911. He saw active service in the First World War, during which he was wounded, Mentioned in Dispatches four times, and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar. He was also made a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order. Between 1925 and 1927 he worked at the Headquarters of the British Indian Army and was brigade major of the 12th Indian Infantry Brigade from 1927 to 1929. He was promoted to major in 1929, lieutenant colonel in 1933 and colonel in 1938. He worked at the War Office from 1930 to 1934, before attending a course at the Imperial Defence College from 1935 to 1936. Between 1937 and 1938 he was an instructor at the Staff College, Camberley.

At the start of the Second World War in 1939, Davidson was serving with the artillery of the 2nd Infantry Division based at Aldershot. He was Commander of the Royal Artillery of the I Corps between 1939 and 1940 as part of the British Expeditionary Force. He briefly served as the acting commander of the 2nd Division in 1940 and was promoted to acting major general. That same year he became the Director of Military Intelligence, a position he held until 1944. He was subsequently on the British Army Staff in Washington, D.C. until his retirement from the regular army in 1946. He was made a Commander of the Legion of Merit in 1948. Between 1952 and 1960 he served as the Colonel Commandment of the Intelligence Corps. He died in 1973.