Major General Francis Henry Norman Davidson, CB, DSO, MC & Bar (1 April 1892 – 15 January 1973) was a British Army officer who served as the Director of Military Intelligence for much of the Second World War.
[1] Born on 1 April 1892, Francis Davidson was educated at Marlborough College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
[4] He saw active service in the First World War, during which he was wounded, mentioned in despatches four times, and was awarded the Military Cross and Bar.
[2][3] At the start of the Second World War in September 1939, Davidson was serving, as he had been since January 1938, as the GSO1 of the 2nd Infantry Division, initially under Major General Henry Maitland Wilson, until he was succeeded in June 1939 by Major General Charles Loyd, based at Aldershot.
[2] He was Commander, Royal Artillery of I Corps between 1939 and 1940 as part of the British Expeditionary Force, then in France.