Updated
Tuesday, 26th January 2021, 3:13 pm
Until October 1909, Britain had been without a professional, dedicated spy and counter-spy organisation, despite rising paranoia over German militarism since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. The military had been reduced in strength as armies on the continent were expanding theirs. The shock by which a small but technologically superior Prussian army managed to invade and defeat France resulted in outrage over the state of Britain’s own military.
Shortly after the Prussian victory, George Tomkyns Chesney, a former captain in the Royal Engineers, wrote The Battle of Dorking as a warning to the general public about this new threat. In the book, Germany launches a successful invasion of Britain, landing at Worthing and converging on the ramshackle British defenders at the Surrey town. Germany inflicts a heavy defeat and Britain becomes a heavily-repressed German colony.