Stephen Jolly

Not to be confused with the Australian footballer, Stephen Jolley.
Stephen Jolly
Academic background
Alma mater Christ's College, Cambridge
Academic work
Sub discipline Communications, linguistic science, information operations, psyops
Institutions
Ministry of Defence
Cabinet Office
University of Cambridge
Judge Business School
Clare College, Cambridge

Stephen Jolly (born 1960) is a Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge;[1] a Fellow of the Cambridge Judge Business School;[2] and between 2005–13, served as Director of External Affairs & Communications for the University of Cambridge.[3] He is the Founder Chairman of the Cambridge alumni group, Clare in Whitehall[4] but is perhaps best known for his work on the history of propaganda as well as his role as a leading British military propagandist.

Career

A linguistic scientist, Jolly was educated at Christ's College, Cambridge where he took First Class Honours in English, was a Bachelor Scholar and College Prizeman; the University of Sussex; and the University of British Columbia, Canada, where he held both a Commonwealth Scholarship and a Killam Fellowship[5] in the late 1980s.

Jolly has a research interest in black propaganda and has published extensively on the topic, with particular reference to the work of British propagandist Sefton Delmer. His research was cited as evidence by the House of Commons Defence Select Committee in its Third Report on Information Operations in 2003-4.[6] Jolly is also a member of the Cambridge Intelligence Seminar and as such, an associate of official MI5 historian, Professor Christopher Andrew.

A former instructor at the British Defence Intelligence & Security Centre, Chicksands, Jolly was a Visiting Fellow in Psychological Warfare at the International Centre for Security Analysis, King's College, London (1999–2002).[7] Web sources link Jolly to Shadow, a precursor to the now defunct 15 (UK) Psychological Operations Group which was subsumed into the British Army's new 77 Brigade in 2015.[8][9][10][11][12] A certified psyops planner, Jolly is believed to be a leading member of the Black and White Association of British psychological warfare veterans as well as the holder of a 15 (UK) Psyops Group service award marking his contribution to the work of the Group.

Honours

Jolly has been a Freeman of the City of London since 2000. In 2004, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of St Lazarus (CLJ) in recognition of his contributions to charity.

In addition, Jolly holds an Honorary Research Fellowship in Defence and Security at the global think tank, RAND Europe and is Honorary Captain of the Light Blue Volunteers, the Cambridge University Officers' Training Corps.[13]

Recent developments

In 2013, Jolly became the UK's Director of Defence Communications, a 2* appointment at the Ministry of Defence.[14] In his two years in post, Jolly made waves in military circles by driving forward a "full spectrum" approach to Defence communications, encompassing public relations, media operations, information operations and psyops.[15] Defence commentators dubbed this "post-Afghan reset" of communications the "Rainbow in the Dark" doctrine. It was an approach that entailed the most radical shake-up in British Defence communications in more than thirty years.[16]

Jolly served as Chairman of the cross-government National Security Communications Committee in 2014-5 and was a member of the Government Communications Board during that period. Jolly was seconded briefly to the Prime Minister's Office/Cabinet Office in 2015 before joining the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom, Shrivenham as its Senior Research Fellow in Information Operations.[17] He remains the most senior serving psyops officer in British Defence.[18]

History

A recent study identifies Jolly's great-grandfather as an associate of Mansfield Cumming during the period when the foreign section of the Secret Service Bureau was being transformed into the Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 6 (MI6), thereby laying the foundations for today's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). During WW1, Sub-Lieutenant Jolly, a RNVR officer, is said to have enlivened his MI6 duties by writing for Tatler, the society magazine. Jolly was one of only five intelligence analysts employed by MI6 during those early years.[19]

Jolly's great-aunt, Margot Morse, was a "Baker Street Irregular", Head of Registry at the WW2 Special Operations Executive (SOE), a founder, and later Secretary of the Special Forces Club.[20]Morse served with the British Security Service, MI5, after 1945.

By marriage, Jolly is related to "Fighting Bob", Major General Sir Robert Sale GCB, close associate of the 1st Duke of Wellington, commander of the garrison at Jalalabad during the First Afghan War and hero of the First Anglo-Sikh War (1845-46).

Articles

Articles published include:

References

  1. "Stephen Jolly". Clare College, Cambridge. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  2. "Stephen Jolly". Judge Business School, Cambridge. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  3. "Stephen Jolly". University of Cambridge. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  4. "Clare in Whitehall". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  5. "Killam Fellowship". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  6. "House of Commons Defence Select Committee Third Report 2003-4". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  7. "International Centre for Security Analysis". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  8. "The Return of the Chindits".
  9. "Army sets up new brigade for the 'information age'".
  10. "British army sets up social media ‘brigade’".
  11. "15 POG". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  12. "HQ Force Troops Command". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  13. "Light Blue Volunteers". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  14. "The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Journalists" (PDF). Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  15. "Army's Press Team Locked in Embrace with the 'Dark Arts' Squad, Guardian, September 2014". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  16. "Defence IQ, 29 July 2014". Retrieved 9 January 2015.
  17. "MoD Director of Defence Comms Stephen Jolly Departs, PR Week, 16 June 2015". Retrieved 16 June 2015.
  18. "Stephen Jolly, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King's College London, War Studies Department, August 2015". Retrieved 10 August 2015.
  19. Keith Jeffrey, MI6: The History of the Secret Intelligence Service, 1909-49 (Bloomsbury: London 2010), p. 56
  20. National Archives HS 9/1065/4
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