    william melville (25 april 1850 â 1 february 1918) was an irish law enforcement officer and the first chief of the british secret intelligence service (mi6), forerunner of mi5. ==birth== william melville was born son of a baker and publican in direenaclaurig cross, sneem, county kerry, ireland. he moved to london in the 1860s and followed his father's footsteps as a baker before he joined the metropolitan police in 1872. he married catherine (kate) o'reilly on 20 february 1879 in london (st saviour). he was once dismissed for insubordination but was later reinstated and later promoted to the criminal investigation department (cid). ==scotland yard== in 1882 he was chosen to be one of the founding members of the special irish branch that was founded to work against fenians and anarchists. melville was posted to the le havre port, during which posting his children, james benjamin (1885) (later sir james melville kc) and cecile victorinne (1886 ; died in london in 1891), were born. in december 1888 melville returned to london and assigned to protect the shah of persia in his state visit. his duties later expanded to the protection of british royal family and he foiled the jubilee plot against queen victoria in 1887. in 1891 he began to campaign against anarchists by raiding and wrecking anarchist clubs and underground printing houses. he also revealed the walsall plot. in 1893 melville became superintendent of scotland yard's special branch when his predecessor john littlechild retired to become a private investigator. when he fired veteran sergeant patrick mcintyre, mcintyre went to press and claimed that melvi
1850_births 1918_deaths British_spies Civil_servants_in_the_War_Office Deaths_from_renal_failure Metropolitan_Police_officers People_from_County_Kerry People_of_the_Victorian_era PreaWorld_War_I_spies World_War_I_spies_for_the_United_Kingdom World_War_I_spies_from_Ireland