Dudley Clarke

Dudley Clarke
Dudley Clarke, by war artist Patrick Phillips (1945)
Birth name	Dudley Wrangel Clarke
Born	(1899-04-27)27 April 1899 Johannesburg, South Africa
Died	7 May 1974(1974-05-07) (aged 75) London, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army
Years of service	1916–1947
Rank	Brigadier
Service number	13136
Battles/wars	First World War Second World War
Awards	Companion of the Order of the Bath Commander of the Order of the British Empire Mentioned in Despatches Officer of the Legion of Merit (United States)

Brigadier Dudley Wrangel Clarke CB, CBE (27 April 1899 – 7 May 1974) was an officer in the British Army, known as a pioneer of military deception operations during the Second World War. His ideas for combining fictional orders of battle, visual deception and double agents helped define Allied deception strategy during the war, for which he has been referred to as "the greatest British deceiver of WW2". Clarke was also instrumental in the founding of three famous military units, namely the British Commandos, the Special Air Service and the US Rangers.

Born in Johannesburg and brought up near London, Clarke joined the Royal Artillery as an officer in 1916, but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps after finding he was too young to fight in France. He spent the First World War learning to fly, first in Reading and then Egypt. Clarke returned to the Royal Artillery in 1919 and had a varied career doing intelligence work in the Middle East. In 1936 he was posted to Palestine, where he helped organise the British repression of the 1936 Arab uprising. During the Second World War, Clarke joined John Dill's staff and proposed and helped implement, an idea for commando raids into France – an early form of the British Commandos.

In 1940, Archibald Wavell called Clarke to Cairo and placed him in charge of strategic deception. As cover he was employed to set up a regional organisation for MI9, a British escape and evasion department. The following year Clarke received a war establishment and set up Advanced Headquarters 'A' Force with a small staff to plan deception operations. Once satisfied with the department's structure, he pursued intelligence contacts in Turkey and Spain. In late 1941 Clarke was called to London, where his deception work had come to the attention of Allied high command. Shortly afterwards, while in Madrid, he was arrested wearing women's clothing, in circumstances that remain unclear. He was released and after being questioned by the governor of Gibraltar, allowed to return to Cairo.