Brigadier-General Sir James Edward Edmonds (25 December 1861 – 2 August 1956) was an officer of the Royal Engineers in the late-Victorian era British Army who worked in the Intelligence Division, took part in the creation of the forerunner of MI5 and promoted several spy scares, which failed to impress Richard Haldane, the Secretary of State for War (1905–1912). Viscount Esher said that Edmonds was In 1911, Edmonds returned to soldiering as the chief of staff of the 4th Division, despite being advised that it was a bad career move. In the manoeuvres of 1912, with the 3rd Division, the 4th Division took part in the defeat of I Corps, commanded by Douglas Haig and the only permanent corps headquarters in the army. The 4th Division training emphasised the retreat despite such tactics being barred by the War Office. When the First World War began, Edmonds thought that the division was well trained but lacking much of the equipment provided to German divisions. The 4th Division fought at the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August and then participated in the Great Retreat, an ordeal which Edmonds, 53 years old, found most trying, buoyed up only be his pre-war training and belief that it would end in a counter-offensive. Edmonds found that once there was time to rest, that he could not and was transferred to GHQ, the headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force, where he feared being sent home. Edmonds spent the rest of the war at GHQ and in 1918 was made deputy engineer-in-chief. Edmonds retired from the army in 1919 with the honorary rank of Brigadier-General. Edmonds became the Director of the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence on 1 April 1919 and was responsible for the post-war compilation of the 28-volume Military Operations section of the History of the Great War. Edmonds wrote eleven of the fourteen volumes titled Military Operations, France and Belgium, dealing with the Western Front. "Military Operations: Italy 1915–1919", the final volume of the series, was published in 1949, just after Edmonds retired. Edmonds spent his retirement at Brecon House, Long Street, Sherborne, Dorset, where he died on 2 August 1956. Early life and education James Edward Edmonds was born in Baker Street, London, on 25 December 1861 to James Edmonds, a master Jeweller and his wife Frances Amelia Bowler, a family that could trace its ancestry to Fowey in