Thomas Edward Maurice McKitterick was an extra-mural lecturer in International Relations in the University of Wales at the outbreak of war in September 1939. A change in the schedule of reserved occupations allowed him to enlist with the Royal Fusiliers in August 1940 and, being a fluent linguist, he was commissioned Lieutenant in the newly-formed Intelligence Corps in March 1941. After brief periods of attachment to the Matlock training centre and to MI9 in London, McKitterick was posted to MI12 (Middle East) where, having listed Greek as his eighth-strongest foreign language, he was appointed a censorship officer in Haifa, with particular responsibility for scrutinising the large quantity of Greek correspondence generated in the city. McKitterick disliked the posting, and repeatedly requested a transfer, but through his work became fluent in the language and an expert on the politics of Greece, a nation then still under German occupation.
In January 1944 McKitterick was attached to Cretan Section Force 133 Special Operations Executive (SOE), responsible for the selection of Allied agents to operate on the island. Thereafter, following a spell as an intelligence officer with the Political Information Centre Middle East (PICME) in Cairo, he spent a few weeks at the end of 1944 in liberated Athens, as head of the city section of the PIC. However, McKitterick found his work hindered by his junior rank and the hostility of British political officers, including Harold Caccia, the future Lord Caccia, and he was transferred to other intelligence duties.
From the guide to the Thomas McKitterick: Papers relating to his service with the Intelligence Corps in the Eastern Mediterranean, 1942-1945, 1942-1945, (Cambridge University Library, Department of Manuscripts and University Archives)
