{{Short description|British intelligence officer (1873–1939)}} {{for|other people named Hugh Sinclair|Hugh Sinclair (disambiguation)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2020}} {{Use British English|date=January 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Admiral Sir | name = Hugh Sinclair | honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|KCB}} | image = The British Naval Campaign in the Baltic, 1918-1919 Q19353.jpg | caption = Sinclair in a carriage in Tallinn | allegiance = United Kingdom | branch = {{ubl |Royal Navy |Naval Intelligence Division |Secret Intelligence Service (SIS/MI6) }} | rank = Admiral | awards = KCB | birth_name = | battles = {{tree list/start}} *World War I *World War II {{tree list/end}} | birth_date = 18 August 1873 | birth_place = Southampton, Hampshire, England | death_date = 4 November 1939 (aged 66) | death_place = London, England | parents = | spouse = | children = | occupation = Intelligence officer | office2 = Director of Naval Intelligence | office1 = Chief of the Submarine Service | office = Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service | order = 2nd | term_start = 1923 | term_end = 4 November 1939 † | predecessor = Mansfield Smith-Cumming | successor = Stewart Menzies | predecessor1 = Douglas Dent | term_start1 = 1921 | term_end1 = 1923 | successor1 = Wilmot Nicholson | predecessor2 = Reginald Hall | successor2 = Maurice Swynfen Fitzmaurice | term_end2 = 1921 | term_start2 = 1919 }}
Admiral '''Sir Hugh Francis Paget Sinclair''', {{post-nominals|size=100%|KCB}} (18 August 1873 – 4 November 1939), known as '''Quex Sinclair''', was a British intelligence officer. He was Director of British Naval Intelligence between 1919 and 1921, and he subsequently helped to set up the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS now commonly called MI6).
==Career== Sinclair was educated at Stubbington House School and joined the Royal Navy as a cadet aged 13 on 15 July 1886.<ref>National Archives, Ref: ADM 196 141 96</ref><ref name=odnb>Christopher Andrew, "Sinclair, Sir Hugh Francis Paget (1873–1939)", rev. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008</ref> He was promoted to lieutenant on 31 December 1894.<ref>National Archives, Ref: ADM 196 89 78</ref>
He entered the Naval Intelligence Division at the beginning of the First World War. He became Director of Naval Intelligence in February 1919 and Chief of the Submarine Service in 1921.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Senior%20Royal%20Navy%20Appointments%201900-.pdf |title=Senior Royal Navy Appointments |access-date=6 September 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120315105247/http://www.gulabin.com/armynavy/pdf/Senior%20Royal%20Navy%20Appointments%201900-.pdf |archive-date=15 March 2012 }}</ref> He became the second director of SIS in 1923. He was promoted vice-admiral on 3 March 1926 and full admiral on 15 May 1930.<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33139|page=1650|date=5 March 1926}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette|issue=33606|page=3069| date=16 May 1930}}</ref> Sinclair also founded Government Code and Cypher School in 1919.<ref>{{cite book |first=John |last=Johnson |title=The Evolution of British Sigint: 1653–1939 |year=1997 |publisher=HMSO |asin=B002ALSXTC|page=44}}</ref>
Beginning in 1919 he attempted to absorb the counterintelligence service MI5 into the SIS to strengthen Britain's efforts against Bolshevism, an idea that was finally rejected in 1925. The SIS remained small and underfunded during the interwar years.<ref name=odnb/> By 1936, Sinclair realised that the Gestapo had penetrated several SIS stations and Claude Dansey, who had been removed from his station in Rome, set up Z Organization, intended to work independently of the compromised SIS.<ref>M. R. D. Foot, "Dansey, Sir Claude Edward Marjoribanks (1876–1947)", rev. ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, May 2008</ref>
In 1938, with a second war looming, Sinclair set up Section D, dedicated to sabotage. In spring 1938, using £6,000 of his own money, he bought Bletchley Park to be a wartime intelligence station.<ref>Michael Smith, ''Station X'', Channel 4 Books, 1998. {{ISBN|0-330-41929-3}}, p. 20</ref>
Sinclair was asked in December 1938 to prepare a dossier on Adolf Hitler, for the attention of Lord Halifax, the Foreign Secretary, and Neville Chamberlain, the Prime Minister.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ft.com/content/0f1ad7d4-a225-11d9-8483-00000e2511c8|title=Spy secrets failed to win Whitehall's trust|date=31 March 2005|work=Financial Times|access-date=1 July 2012}}</ref> In the dossier, which was received poorly by Sir George Mounsey, the Foreign Office assistant undersecretary, who believed that it did not gel with Britain's policy of appeasement, Sinclair described Hitler as possessing the characteristics of "fanaticism, mysticism, ruthlessness, cunning, vanity, moods of exaltation and depression, fits of bitter and self-righteous resentment; and what can only be termed a streak of madness; but with it all there is a great tenacity of purpose, which has often been combined with extraordinary clarity of vision".<ref>[http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/TheRecordsofthePermanentUnderSecretarysDepartment_1.pdf Foreign Office files] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070927193354/http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/TheRecordsofthePermanentUnderSecretarysDepartment_1.pdf |date=27 September 2007}}</ref>
Sinclair became seriously ill with cancer, causing Alexander Cadogan to note on 19 October 1939, that he was "going downhill". On 29 October, Sinclair underwent an operation for his cancer and died on 4 November 1939, aged 66, five days before the Venlo incident.<ref>Andrew. pp. 436–438.</ref>
==Family== Hugh was the son of Admiral Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour, 1st Baron Alcester<ref>Sinclair family papers - Royal Museums Greenwich|https://www.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/rmgc-object-482549</ref> and Agnes Sinclair. In his will, Frederick Seymour, left the balance of his estate to Agnes Sinclair for her lifetime. On her death, two fifths were left to Frederick Charles Horace Sinclair and one fifth each to Hugh Francis Paget Sinclair, Claude Hamilton Sinclair and Evelyn Beauchamp Sinclair.<ref>Berrow's Worcester Journal (Worcester, England), Saturday, 18 May 1895; pg. 2; Issue 10517</ref>
Hugh married, in 1907, Gertrude Attenborough and had two sons. They were divorced in 1920.<ref>The Times (London, England), Wednesday, Dec 22, 1920; pg. 4</ref><ref>National Archives, Ref: J 77/1688/2518. Divorce Court File: 2518.</ref>
==Awards and decorations== thumb|Medals of Sir Hugh Sinclair on display at Bletchley Park
* 1911 King George V Coronation Medal<ref>Royal Navy Medal Rolls 1793-1955, Ref: ADM171-61</ref> * 1916 Companion of the Order of the Bath<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=12947|page=980|date=5 June 1916|city=e}}</ref> * 1918 3rd Class, Order of the Rising Sun<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31038|supp=y|page=14091|date=26 November 1918}}</ref> * 1918 Officer, the Legion of Honour<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=31063|supp=y|page=14685|date=10 December 1918}}</ref> * 1935 Knight Commander, the Order of the Bath<ref>{{London Gazette|issue=34166|supp=y|page=3594|date=31 May 1935}}</ref> * 1937 King George VI Coronation Medal<ref>King George VI 1937 Coronation Medal Roll, Ref: QLIB5-7</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=William Hall}} {{s-ttl|title=Director of Naval Intelligence|years=1919–1921}} {{s-aft|after=Maurice Fitzmaurice}} |- {{s-bef|before=Douglas Dent}} {{s-ttl|title=Chief of the Submarine Service|years=1921–1923}} {{s-aft|after=Wilmot Nicholson}} |- {{s-gov}} {{succession box | before=Sir Mansfield Cumming| title=Chief of the SIS | years=1923–1939| after=Stewart Menzies|}} {{s-end}} {{Directors of Naval Intelligence}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sinclair, Hugh}} Category:1873 births Category:1939 deaths Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:World War I spies for the United Kingdom Category:Interwar-period spies Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Bletchley Park people Category:Military personnel from Southampton Category:Chiefs of the Secret Intelligence Service Category:Directors of Naval Intelligence Category:People educated at Stubbington House School