Alastair Denniston
Alastair Denniston | |
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| Born | Alexander Guthrie Denniston 1 December 1881 Cryptologist |
Early life
| Olympic medal record | ||
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| Men's Hockey | ||
Representing  Great Britain(  Scotland)
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1908 London | Team
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Denniston was born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, the son of a medical practitioner.[3] He studied at the University of Bonn and the University of Paris.[3] Denniston was a member of the Scottish Olympic hockey team in 1908 and won a bronze medal. He played as a half-back, and his club team was listed as Edinburgh. In the IOC's official 1908 report, he is listed as Dennistoun rather than Denniston.[2]
First World War and after
In 1914, Denniston helped form Room 40 in the Admiralty, an organisation responsible for intercepting and decrypting enemy messages. In 1917, he married a fellow Room 40 worker, Dorothy Mary Gilliat.[3]
After
With the rise of
On 26 July 1939, five weeks before the outbreak of war, Denniston was one of three Britons (along with
Second World War
Denniston remained in command until he was admitted to hospital in June 1940 for a
Despite his knowledge of the success of Polish cryptologists against Enigma, Denniston shared the general pessimism about the prospects of breaking the more complex Naval Enigma encryption until as late as the summer of 1940, having told the Head of Naval Section at Bletchley: "You know, the Germans don't mean you to read their stuff, and I don't expect you ever will."[8] The advent of Banburismus shortly afterwards showed his pessimism to be misplaced.
In October 1941, the originator of the technique, Alan Turing, along with fellow senior cryptologists Gordon Welchman, Stuart Milner-Barry and Hugh Alexander wrote to Churchill, over the head of Denniston, to alert Churchill to the fact that a shortage of staff at Bletchley Park was preventing them from deciphering many messages. An addition of personnel, small by military standards, could make a big difference to the effectiveness of the fighting effort. The slow response to previous requests had convinced them that the strategic value of their work was not understood in the right quarters. In the letter, there was praise for the 'energy and foresight' of Commander Edward Travis.[9]
Churchill reacted to the letter immediately, ordering "Action this day". Resources were transferred as fast as possible.[10]
In February 1942, GC&CS was reorganised. Travis, Denniston's second in command and chief of the Naval section, succeeded Denniston at Bletchley Park, overseeing the work on military codes and ciphers. When Travis took over, he "presided over an administrative revolution which at last brought the management of Intelligence into line with its mode of production".[9]
Personal and post-war life
Denniston and his wife had two children: a son and daughter. Their son, Robin, was educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. After Alastair's demotion and resulting decreased income, Robin's school fees were paid by benefactors. However, the Dennistons' daughter had to leave her school due to lack of funds.[11]
Denniston retired in 1945, and later taught French and Latin in Leatherhead.[3]
Robin distinguished himself as a publisher. In 2007, he published Thirty Secret Years, a biography of his father that consolidated his reputation in GCHQ history.[11]
Honours and awards
- 7 January 1918 appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) Commander Alexander Guthrie Denniston, R.N.V.R. Naval Intelligence Division, Admiralty.[12]
- 2 January 1933 appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) Commander Alexander Guthrie Denniston, O.B.E., R.N.V.R. Head of a Department, Foreign Office.[13]
- 12 June 1941 appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) Commander Alexander Guthrie Denniston, C.B.E., R.N.V.R. (Retd.), Head of a Department of the Foreign Office.[3][14]
| Ribbon | Description | Notes |
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Order of the British Empire (OBE) |
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1914–15 Star |
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British War Medal |
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Victory Medal (United Kingdom) |
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Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) |
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Fictional depictions
In the 2014 film The Imitation Game, he is portrayed by Charles Dance.[15]
References
- ISBN 978-1526709127.
- ^ a b Cook, Theodore (1909). "The Fourth Olympiad: Being the Official Report of the Olympic Games of 1908 Celebrated in London". British Olympic Association. Retrieved 5 August 2020.
- ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004
- ^ "Alastair Denniston". Olympedia. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-947712-34-1.
- ASIN B002ALSXTC.
- S2CID 13410460.
- ^ Preface to Turing's Treatise on the Enigma (the Prof's Book), Andrew Hodges, 1998
- ^ Simon and Schuster. pp. 219–223.
- ^ "Action This Day". International Churchill Society. 19 August 2021. Retrieved 1 November 2021.
- ^ a b "Obituary: Robin Denniston". The Daily Telegraph. 27 May 2012.
- ^ "No. 30460". The London Gazette (Supplement). 7 January 1918. p. 377.
- ^ "No. 33898". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 January 1933. p. 9.
- ^ "No. 35814". The London Gazette (Supplement). 12 June 1941. p. 3284.
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 June 2019.
Bibliography
- Robin Denniston, Churchill's Secret War: Diplomatic Decrypts, the Foreign Office and Turkey 1942–44 (1997)
- Robin Denniston, Thirty Secret Years: A.G. Denniston's work in signals intelligence 1914-1944 (2007)
- ISBN 1-57488-367-4.
- ISBN 0-19-820327-6.
- ISBN 0-89093-547-5, pp. 59–60.
External links
- The Papers of Alexander Guthrie Denniston are held at the Churchill Archives Centre in Cambridge, and are accessible to the public.
- DatabaseOlympics.com profile
- Thirty Secret Years: A.G. Denniston's work in signals intelligence 1914-1944
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