Catalogue description Government Code and Cypher School: Histories of British Sigint

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Details of HW 43
Reference: HW 43
Title: Government Code and Cypher School: Histories of British Sigint
Description:

This series contains histories of British Sigint, most of which were intially retained under Section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958.

The three-volume 'History of British Sigint, 1914-1945' (HW 43/1-3) provides an overview of policy and operations by the sigint organisations in this period. Written as an official history at the end of the Second World War, it is mainly devoted to the period 1939-1945, but does include summary sections on the development of British signals intelligence in the First World War and the inter-war period. The author's position as Head of the Naval Section of the Government Code and Cypher School is reflected in the balance afforded to the work of that section compared to others in volumes I and II of the history.
Date: 1914-1945
Related material:

See also, Government Code and Cypher School: Cryptographic Studies HW 25
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Foreign Office, Government Code and Cypher School, 1922-1946
Physical description: 94 volume(s)
Access conditions: Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

from 2001-2004 Government Communications Headquarters
Selection and destruction information: Selected under Acquisition Policy criterion 2.2.1.3, documenting the history of UK Signals Intelligence operations between 1914 and 1945. All 3 volumes of the history have been selected. Sixty pieces were/are retained under Section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958.
Accruals: Series is not accruing.
Administrative / biographical background:

This official history was mostly written by Frank Birch, Head of the German Naval Sub-Section of the Government Code and Cypher School, 1939-1941, then Head of the Naval Section. Birch, along with W F Clarke, had written the history of Naval Sigint after the First World War. Birch died before he could complete the second volume of this history, and the third volume of appendices was compiled by Monica Zambra after Birch's death.

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