MI7 was a branch of the British War Office’s Directorate of Military Intelligence with responsibilities for press liaison and propaganda. The branch was originally established in the First World War and disbanded after the signing of the Armistice. The branch was re-formed at the start of the Second World War. The new MI7, while less significant than its predecessor, acted as a necessary liaison link between the War Office and the Ministry of Information and Political Warfare Executive. First World War On the outbreak of the First World War, a subsection of the Directorate of Military Operations, MO5(h), was established with responsibility for press and cable censorship and the issuing of War Office communiques through the Press Bureau. Initially just two General Staff Officers (GSO2) were allocated to the subsection. It became immediately apparent that two men was insufficient for the task and within a fortnight the subsection was expanded to a senior General Staff Officer (GSO1) with eight assistant ‘censors’ working under him. In February 1915, the Directorate of Special Intelligence was formed and consequently MO5(h) was upgraded and designated as the MO7 section. It was nominally under the command of Colonel Coleridge, the Military Assistant Director of the Press Bureau. As part of the War Office, MO7 was concerned with press publicity. It gave the first war correspondents permission to visit the Western Front in May 1915. Its duty was to ensure that the military authorities maintained control over the Press and correspondents' work. In January 1916, as part of a reorganisation of the Imperial General Staff, a new Directorate of Military Intelligence was created and MO7 became Military Intelligence Section 7. MI7 was organised in a series of sub-sections distinguished by lower-case letters in brackets. The precise duties of these sub-sections varied with time, but may be roughly summarised as follows. MI7 (a) - censorship. MI7 (b) - foreign and domestic propaganda, including press releases concerning army matters. MI7 (c) - translation and (from 1917) regulation of foreign visitors. MI7 (d) - foreign press propaganda and review (part of subsection (b) until subsection (d) was formed in late 1916). A.A. Milne, the author of Winnie the Pooh, served in MI7(b) after recovering from wounds sustained at the Battle of the Somme. The Anglo-Irish fantasy writer Lord Dunsany served with Milne after being wounded in the Easter Rising; his books Tales of War and Unhappy Far-off Things collect