Bletchley Park Tour

Biography: Brigadier Sir Richard Gambier-Parry

By the very nature of their highly secret work, many of those involved in the codebreaking triumphs of WWII were destined never to have that work fully understood in their own lifetime. They were recognised within intelligence and diplomatic circles but remained, for the public at large, the silent heroes of the war.

One of those heroes was Brigadier Sir Richard Gambier-Parry. Based at Whaddon Hall, Gambier-Parry and his team were the 'voice of Ultra', disseminating Bletchley Park's vital intelligence to the Allied forces.

Recruited in 1938, Gambier-Parry was given the task of leading MI6 Section VIII (SIS Communications), the section devoted to all forms of secret communication. He was to orchestrate its complete overhaul and modernisation. To this end, he set about recruiting talented men from across the radio world.

All SIS Communications sites were built and manned by Gambier-Parry's staff. Such sites included the embryonic radio station which nestled in the tower of Bletchley Park's Mansion. It was this radio station that first bore the name 'Station X'. With its aerial clearly visible, the radio station could hardly be kept secret. It was soon dismantled and re-sited at nearby Whaddon Hall, a few miles west of Bletchley Park.

Whaddon Hall had a multitude of roles, the most important being the dissemination of the Ultra intelligence produced at Bletchley Park to service chiefs and commanders in the field.

It also built the famous Signals Liaison Units. These units were receiving stations for traffic from Whaddon Hall. They could be placed in fixed secure sites: for example deep in Fighter Command, underground in the St. James complex in Whitehall. More frequently they were mobile, accompanying the commanders in the field, notably during D-Day and the Allied invasion of Europe.

Gambier-Parry's units also constructed 'Aspidistra' at Crowborough - the most powerful radio station in the world at the time. This was used in its dissemination of black propaganda, a major weapon against the Germans.

Gambier-Parry's great contribution to the Intelligence Service continued long after the war. In 1956, he was appointed KCMG and knighted. He died on 19th June 1965.

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