Nigel de Grey (27 March 1886 – 25 May 1951) was a British
codebreaker. Son of the rector of
Copdock
Copdock is a village and former civil parish in county of Suffolk, south-eastern England. In 1961 the civil parish had a population of 399.
Location
Copdock is south-west of Ipswich. It is located on the former A12 road (now designated as the C ...
, Suffolk, and grandson of the 5th
Lord Walsingham, he was educated at
Eton College
Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
and became fluent in French and German. In 1907 he joined the publishing firm of
William Heinemann
William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London.
Early life
On 18 May 1863, Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, England. Heine ...
. As he was shy and physically small, a colleague labelled him "the dormouse".
World War I
De Grey joined the
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
Royal may refer to:
People
* Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name
* A member of a royal family
Places United States
* Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community
* Royal, Illinois, a village
* Royal, Iowa, a cit ...
and served in
Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
. In early 1915 he was transferred to Naval Intelligence Division,
Room 40
Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War.
The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the ...
codebreaking section. He,
Dilly Knox
Alfred Dillwyn "Dilly" Knox, CMG (23 July 1884 – 27 February 1943) was a British classics scholar and papyrologist at King's College, Cambridge and a codebreaker. As a member of the Room 40 codebreaking unit he helped decrypt the Zimmer ...
and Reverend
William Montgomery decrypted the
Zimmermann Telegram on 17 January 1917. The Zimmermann Telegram was from the
German
German(s) may refer to:
* Germany (of or related to)
**Germania (historical use)
* Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language
** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law
**Ger ...
foreign secretary
Arthur Zimmermann
Arthur Zimmermann (5 October 1864 – 6 June 1940) was State Secretary for Foreign Affairs of the German Empire from 22 November 1916 until his resignation on 6 August 1917. His name is associated with the Zimmermann Telegram during World War ...
to the German ambassador
Heinrich von Eckardt
Heinrich von Eckardt (20 July 1861, in Riga, Russian Empire – 3 March 1944, in Jena, Germany) was a Baltic German diplomat in the service of the German Empire.
Life and work
After studying jurisprudence at the University of Jena from 1881 to 18 ...
in
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, telling him to offer the Mexican government the return of the states of Arizona, Texas and New Mexico as an inducement to Mexico to side with Germany against the United States. The public disclosure of this secret Mexican-German pact brought the US into
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
. De Grey was promoted and assigned to run the NID's Mediterranean section, liaise with the director of Italian naval intelligence and focus on Austrian cipher traffic.
World War II
In
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Nigel de Grey was assigned to the "Government Code and Cypher School" (GC&CS) at
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...
, where he concentrated on German traffic encrypted on the
Enigma cipher machine. In September 1941 he provided a report to the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
with the first references from German authorities to their own police battalions
systematically levelling villages and removing their populations. One signal boasted of 30,000 executions "in the central area". Following a warning made in a speech to parliament by Churchill, a German circular in October 1941 cautioned that no further references to "sensitive operations" should be made on wireless channels.
After World War II de Grey remained with GC&CS, which became
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Unit ...
in 1946. Eventually he became a deputy director and led a team working on Soviet cable traffic. He retired in 1951 and died a very short time later of a heart-attack in
Oxford Street
Oxford Street is a major road in the City of Westminster in the West End of London, running from Tottenham Court Road to Marble Arch via Oxford Circus. It is Europe's busiest shopping street, with around half a million daily visitors, and as ...
, London. His wife, whom he married in 1910, survived him.
References
* Nigel West, "Grey, Nigel Arthur de (1886-1951)" in the ''
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...
''
* Paul Gannon, "Inside Room 40: The Codebreakers of World War I", London, 2010
{{DEFAULTSORT:De Grey, Nigel
British cryptographers
Pre-computer cryptographers
Bletchley Park people
1886 births
1951 deaths
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I
British people of World War II
Signals intelligence of World War I
Nigel
Nigel ( ) is an English language, English masculine given name.
The English ''Nigel'' is commonly found in records dating from the Middle Ages; however, it was not used much before being revived by 19th-century antiquarians. For instance, Walte ...
People educated at Eton College
People from Babergh District