Bletchley Park

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