Nigel de Gray

Nigel de Gray (March 27, 1886 - May 25, 1951 ) was a British cryptanalyst . During the Second World War he contributed to the breakdown of the German rotor key machine Enigma in the Government Code and Cypher School (GC & CS) (German: "Staatliche Code- und Chiffrenschule") in Bletchley Park, England .

Life

Nigel enjoyed his education at Eton College , where he learned French and German. In 1907 he began his professional life at the William Heinemann publishing house in London. He married three years later. When World War I broke out in 1914 , he enlisted in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and served on the Western Front in Belgium. During the war in 1915 he became the now famous Room 40 offset a then secret intelligence department of the British Navy , dedicated to cryptanalysis ( English cryptanalysis ,) so the deciphering of encrypted dealt hostile message traffic. Together with "Dilly" Knox and William Montgomery, he deciphered the Zimmermann telegram on January 17, 1917 , which triggered the American entry into the war against Germany . De Gray was then head of the Mediterranean - Unit of the British Naval Intelligence Department (NID) appointed (Naval Intelligence). Here he worked in conjunction with the Italian Navy against the Austro-Hungarian communications.

During the Second World War, Nigel de Gray came to Bletchley Park (BP). During the Second World War, the GC & CS , i.e. the military service that successfully deciphered German communications encrypted with the aid of ENIGMA, was located on the grounds of this English country estate in the county of Buckinghamshire . On March 28, 1943, then as BP's number 2, he wrote an ironic memorandum which his boss, Commander ( frigate captain ) Edward Travis , commented as saying that it contained "a great deal of truth" (in the English original: a great many truths ).

After the war, he stayed with GC & CS , which was renamed GCHQ for Government Communications Headquarters shortly afterwards , where he became Deputy Director (DD ) of a team that dealt with encrypted Soviet cable connections. He retired in 1951 and died shortly afterwards of a sudden heart attack in Oxford Street, London .

literature

Friedrich L. Bauer : Deciphered Secrets. Methods and maxims of cryptology. 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Springer, Berlin et al. 2000, ISBN 3-540-67931-6 .
Christopher Gray & Andrew Sturdy: The 1942 Reorganization of the Government Code and Cypher School . Cryptologia . Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia PA 32.2008,4 (October), pp. 311-333. ISSN 0161-1194 .
Francis Harry Hinsley, Alan Stripp: Codebreakers - The inside story of Bletchley Park . Oxford University Press, Reading, Berkshire 1993, pp. 119-122. ISBN 0-19-280132-5
Hugh Sebag-Montefiore : ENIGMA - The battle for the code . Cassell Military Paperbacks, London 2004, pp. 174-176. ISBN 0-304-36662-5

Web links

Portrait photo
Nigel de Gray in the honor roll (Roll of Honor) of Bletchley Park

Individual evidence

^ Gordon Welchman: The Hut Six Story - Breaking the Enigma Codes . Allen Lane, London 1982; Cleobury Mortimer M&M, Baldwin Shropshire 2000, p. 11. ISBN 0-947712-34-8
↑ Christopher Gray & Andrew Sturdy: The 1942 Reorganization of the Government Code and Cypher School . Cryptologia. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia PA 32.2008,4 (October), pp. 312-314. ISSN 0161-1194 .

personal data
SURNAME	Gray, Nigel de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	British cryptologist
DATE OF BIRTH	March 27, 1886
DATE OF DEATH	May 25, 1951

[1] Gordon Welchman: The Hut Six Story - Breaking the Enigma Codes . Allen Lane, London 1982; Cleobury Mortimer M&M, Baldwin Shropshire 2000, p. 11. ISBN 0-947712-34-8

[2] Christopher Gray & Andrew Sturdy: The 1942 Reorganization of the Government Code and Cypher School . Cryptologia. Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. Taylor & Francis, Philadelphia PA 32.2008,4 (October), pp. 312-314. ISSN 0161-1194 .