Intelligence Insight No. 004

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2020

⏱️ 60 minutes

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Summary

April 2020

Many of Bletchley Park’s senior early war staff had cut their codebreaking teeth during World War One. In 2015 we opened an exhibition called The Road to Bletchley Park which looked at the work of Room 40 and MI1B. So following on from our previous Intelligence Insight we will be sharing again some interviews with the families of these famous Codebreakers of both conflicts.

Dillwyn ‘Dilly’ Knox started World War Two as GC&CS’s Chief Codebreaker but in World War One had been one of the team that helped to break the famous Zimmerman Telegram. So first we return to 2015 when 14 members of his family paid us a visit and we spoke to his 4 grandchildren, Charlotte, Tim, Peter and the modern incarnation of Dilly.

The person credited with most of the work on the Zimmerman Telegram was Nigel de Grey. Again in 2015 we spoke to Michael de Grey about his grandfather’s work and he shared some amazing letters that Nigel sent him as a child. Then Michael’s brother, Anthony de Grey spoke about their father John de Grey who joined their grandfather to work at Bletchley Park during World War Two.

We then move forward to 2016 and join Michael and Anthony at the opening of the second part of The Road to Bletchley Park. Our final selection this week is from 2017 when we celebrated the 100th anniversary of The Zimmerman Telegram. For this event Michael and Anthony were joined by Edward Hohler, whose grandfather Thomas was ‘Our man in Mexico’ at the time.

Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020

#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, #WW1

Transcript

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0:00.0	Top Secret for Senior Officer, immediate.
0:14.0	Decipher and pass to all relevant sections.
0:19.0	24th of April, Intelligence Insight number 004.
0:23.6	Welcome to this Bletchley Park Intelligence Insight.
0:28.6	Many of Bletchley Park's senior early war staff could be said to have cut their code-breaking teeth during World War I.
0:35.6	In 2015 we opened an exhibition called The Road to Plexley Park which looked at the work
0:41.1	of both the Naval Room 40 team and the Army's MI1B.
0:46.3	So following on from our previous intelligence insight, we thought we'd share some more
0:50.0	interviews with some of the families of these famous codebreakers of both conflicts.
0:56.0	Dilwyn Dilley Knox started World War II as GCNCS's chief codebreaker, but in World War I,
1:03.0	he'd been one of the team credited with breaking the famous Zimmerman Telegram.
1:07.0	So in this first piece, we returned to 2015 when 14 members of his family paid us a visit,
1:13.0	and we spoke with four grandchildren, Charlotte, Tim, Peter and the modern incarnation of Dilley.
1:26.7	Here we are outside Cottage 3, which during the Second World War, was where Dilley Knox, the chief code breaker at Blacksley Park at the start of the war, did his finest work.
1:38.0	And today we've got a visit from 14 members of Dilley's family.
1:44.4	With me at the moment, I've got four Dillie's grandchildren.
1:47.3	If I'll just get your names?
1:48.7	Dillwyn.
1:49.4	Tim.
1:50.0	Charlotte.
1:50.7	Peter.
1:51.6	So we've got a Dilly with us at the moment.
	...

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