M.R.D. Foot’s Followers (14)

M.R.D. Foot

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

December 14, 1919

Died

February 18, 2012

Genre

History

edit data

Michael Richard Daniell Foot, CBE, TD, known as M. R. D. Foot — was a British military historian and former British Army intelligence officer and special operations operative during World War II.

The son of a career soldier, Foot was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he became involved romantically with Iris Murdoch. He joined the British Army on the outbreak of World War II and was commissioned into a Royal Engineers searchlight battalion. In 1941 searchlight units transferred to the Royal Artillery. By 1942, he was serving at Combined Operations Headquarters, but wanting to see action he joined the SAS as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France after D-Day. He was for a time a prisoner of war, and Michael Richard Daniell Foot, CBE, TD, known as M. R. D. Foot — was a British military historian and former British Army intelligence officer and special operations operative during World War II.

The son of a career soldier, Foot was educated at Winchester College and New College, Oxford, where he became involved romantically with Iris Murdoch. He joined the British Army on the outbreak of World War II and was commissioned into a Royal Engineers searchlight battalion. In 1941 searchlight units transferred to the Royal Artillery. By 1942, he was serving at Combined Operations Headquarters, but wanting to see action he joined the SAS as an intelligence officer and was parachuted into France after D-Day. He was for a time a prisoner of war, and was severely injured during one of his attempts to escape. For his service with the French Resistance he was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the Croix de Guerre. He ended the war as a major. After the war he remained in the Territorial Army, transferring to the Intelligence Corps in 1950.

After the war Foot taught at Oxford University for eight years before becoming Professor of Modern History at Manchester University. 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 of SOE, 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.

Foot left the Labour Party while his namesake Michael Foot — to whom he was very distantly related — was leading it, and joined the SDP (Social Democratic Party).

Foot was the great-great-great-grandson of Benjamin Fayle who built Dorset's first railway, the Middlebere Plateway in 1806. Fayle was the great-great-grandson of William Edmunson, the First Irish Quaker.

He was at one time married to the British philosopher Philippa Foot (née Bosanquet), the granddaughter of U.S. President Grover Cleveland. Foot's second was wife was Elizabeth King, with whom he had a son and a daughter. In 1972 Foot married Mirjam Romme.

M.R.D. Foot was appointed a CBE in 2001. He also received the Territorial Decoration for Long Service in the Territorial Army.

See also his obituaries at:
1) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obitu... accessed 26 May 2012.

2) http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/... accessed 26 May 2012. ...more

Combine Editions
M.R.D. Foot’s books

Average rating: 4.01 · 565 ratings · 56 reviews · 36 distinct works • Similar authors

	SOE: The Special Operations Executive, 1940-46 3.87 avg rating — 109 ratings — published 1984 — 23 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	SOE in France: An Account of the Work of the British Special Operations Executive in France 1940-1944 (Government Official History Series) 4.24 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 1966 — 30 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	MI9: Escape and Evasion 1939-1945 by M.R.D. Foot, J.M. Langley 3.41 avg rating — 44 ratings — published 1979 — 12 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Six Faces of Courage 3.93 avg rating — 30 ratings — published 1978 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Memories of an SOE Historian 3.68 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 2008 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Resistance: European Resistance to the Nazis, 1940-1945 3.54 avg rating — 26 ratings — published 1976 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	SOE in the Low Countries 3.73 avg rating — 11 ratings — published 2001 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	British Foreign Policy since 1898 4.14 avg rating — 7 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Art and War: 20th Century Warfare As Depicted by War Artists liked it 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 1990 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Holland at War Against Hitler really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 1990 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by M.R.D. Foot…

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Librari...: Please combine	1013	295	Apr 11, 2019 07:28AM
THE WORLD WAR TWO...: Intelligence Operations & Units During WW2	484	434	Nov 04, 2025 04:26AM
The History Book ...: * WINSTON CHURCHILL	253	748	Dec 19, 2025 04:30PM
THE WORLD WAR TWO...: E-Books and Others - Specials & Sales for Members Notice	2149	533	Dec 21, 2025 05:52PM

More…

M.R.D. Foot’s Followers (14)

M.R.D. Foot

Combine EditionsM.R.D. Foot’s books

Topics Mentioning This Author

Combine Editions
M.R.D. Foot’s books