August 2014
As the centenary of World War One is marked, Bletchley
Park looks back at the early intelligence career of one of
its lesser-known geniuses.
In this extract, recorded at the Codebreaker’s Legacy Talks
in November 2013, bestselling author and Bletchley Park
Trustee Michael Smith charts the World War One service
of John Tiltman, Bletchley Park's Chief Cryptographer, who
was awarded the Military Cross fighting in the trenches.
After being badly wounded in the Battle of Arras he
transferred to military intelligence beginning a brilliant
codebreaking career that was to last more than sixty years.
Bletchley Park became the World War Two home of the
Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), which
was formed shortly after the allied armistice with Germany
in November 1919. GC&CS was the outcome of a merger
between the two significant codebreaking and signals
intelligence departments of the then recent war: Room 40
or I.D. 25 (part of Naval Intelligence located within the
Admiralty) and MI1(b) (a sub-section of Military
Intelligence located within the War Office). A number of
individuals who played important roles in codebreaking
during World War One, went on to perform prominent roles
at Bletchley Park during World War Two, such as Alastair
Denniston, Dilly Knox, Frank Birch, Oliver Strachey, and
Nigel de Grey.
The great accomplishments of the GC&CS during World
War Two owe a great deal to the first official government
codebreaking and signals intelligence departments that
were established just after the outbreak of World War One.
This story will be explored in an exciting new exhibition due
to open in 2015 co-sponsored by BAE Systems Applied
Intelligence and Ultra Electronics.
Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com
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