The

The From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

Welcome to the August 2023 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, The Diplomatic

section.

This month, we examine the often overlooked story of GCNCS's work on diplomatic codes and

ciphers. This vital work predated work on military codes beginning when GCNCS's work on diplomatic codes and ciphers. This vital work predated work on military codes

beginning when GCNCS was created in 1919. Work continued throughout World War II, with some staff

eventually leaving Bletchley Park to carry on as the Government Communications Bureau in Barclay

Street, London. In this special episode, our research historian,

Dr David Kenyon, is joined by GCHQ's departmental historian Dr David Abritat to discuss all things

diplomatic and beyond. Special thanks go to Dr. Ben Thompson for voicing our archival documents.

Welcome back to Bletchie Park, Dave.

Good to have you on the podcast again.

Thank you for having me.

This month we're talking about diplomatic and commercial.

Many people will have heard of the military aspects of Bletchley Park and DC&SO Enigma and all of these things, but we're heading off in a slightly different direction

this episode. Can you briefly define for me what diplomatic and commercial SIGint is?

Coscolde, as you're right you say, a lot of the focus of Bletch's past has been focused

on the service sections, either the service sections, the military section, the

naval section and the work they did against the Enigma and the Lorentz, but there's

always been an enduring aspect of GCNCS, the Government Code and Cipher School's history, which

is focused on diplomatic interception. And it goes back to before GCNCS was formed in 1919.

...