Editing Hugh Sinclair (section)

==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 (United Kingdom)|Naval Intelligence Division]] at the beginning of the [[First World War]]. He became [[Naval Intelligence Division (United Kingdom)|Director of Naval Intelligence]] in February 1919 and [[Commodore Submarine Service|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 [[Secret Intelligence Service|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]], later to be known as [[GCHQ]] 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 [[Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax|Lord Halifax]], the Foreign Secretary, and [[Neville Chamberlain]], the Prime Minister.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0f1ad7d4-a225-11d9-8483-00000e2511c8.html|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>