William Francis "Nobby" Clarke (1883–1961) was a British intelligence officer and cryptographer of naval codes in both World Wars.
Background and early life
Clarke was educated at
Harrow School and
Magdalen College, Oxford, and trained as a lawyer, being admitted to the bar in 1906 by his father,
Sir Edward Clarke, a prominent lawyer and later Solicitor-General.
Naval career
In 1915, he was commissioned as an assistant paymaster, having failed the eye examination for executive officer. He knew German, and in March 1916 joined
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 ...
.
His talent was for information analysis rather than code-breaking. He was on duty during the
Battle of Jutland, and was unimpressed by the inefficient handling and distribution of intelligence. When Clarke and
Francis Birch were chosen in 1919 to write the history of Room 40, their outspoken criticism of the Navy’s mishandling of intelligence led to the history being “suppressed”.
Later career
In 1919, Clarke joined the
Government Code and Cipher School
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 Uni ...
, working for four years on American diplomatic traffic. In 1924 he was promoted to head of the new naval section in GC&CS, holding the position to 1941. He was succeeded as head by his colleague
Francis Birch, and then concentrated on Italian naval codes, retiring in October 1945.
Death and burial
Clarke died in 1961, and he was buried at
Church of All Saints, Selworthy.
[Joseph A. Maiolo, ‘Clarke, William Francis (1883–1961)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clarke, William
British cryptographers
Bletchley Park people
1883 births
1961 deaths
British people of World War I
British people of World War II
People educated at Harrow School
Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
20th-century English lawyers