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

 

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