About the Roll of Honour

The Bletchley Park Roll of Honour lists all those believed to have worked in signals intelligence during World War Two, at Bletchley Park and other locations.

As no single list of the personnel of Bletchley Park and its outstations was ever produced, the Roll of Honour has been compiled from information in official sources, publications and, most importantly, that provided by the veterans themselves, their former colleagues and families.

The Roll of Honour is by no means complete and we are very interested in hearing about anyone who should be added. We have no information about anyone not on the Roll of Honour.

Background

The Bletchley Park Roll of Honour aims to list all those who worked in signals intelligence for the United Kingdom and Commonwealth countries during the Second World War.

The Roll of Honour lists people who:

• Were employed by the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park or its outstations
• Served in the Armed Forces at Bletchley Park or its outstations
• Served in the Y Services of the Armed Forces intercepting enemy radio communications
• Served in Special Liaison Units or Special Communications Units
• Served in the Radio Security Service
• Worked for the GPO at Bletchley Park, or in the Colossus team at Dollis Hill, or at Y stations
• Served in signals intelligence in the Armed Forces of Commonwealth countries
• It also includes US signals intelligence personnel who were stationed in the United Kingdom
• The Roll of Honour does not list those who served in SIS/MI6 (apart from a very small number who were based at Bletchley Park), SOE, MI5, or other intelligence activities separate from signals intelligence
• The Roll of Honour can be found at rollofhonour.bletchleypark.org.uk and can also be viewed on dedicated computer kiosks at Bletchley Park
• As no complete list of those who worked at Bletchley Park and its outstations was ever produced, and many wartime records were destroyed long ago, the Roll of Honour is known to be incomplete. We are constantly adding to it, as more information is received from veterans of signals intelligence or from their friends and relatives. We have no information about anyone whose name does not appear on the Roll of Honour.

Sources

Some wartime documents, now held in the National Archives, include names of many of those involved in the work of Government Code and Cypher School and its outstations. About half of the people on the Roll of Honour can be found in these documents, though these show only initials, rather than full forenames. Information from these documents has been used to compile the Roll of Honour.

The most informative source is the veterans themselves. Over the past 20 years, thousands of veterans have provided us with information about their wartime service and this is summarised in their individual entries on the Roll of Honour, in many cases supplementing information from the wartime sources mentioned above. Many veterans produced written accounts of their experiences, which they or their families have sent to us, and the Bletchley Park Oral History Project has recorded the stories of hundreds of veterans over the past few years.

Finding out more about someone’s wartime service

Personnel records of those who served in the Armed Forces are held by the Ministry of Defence. Veterans can request a copy of their own record, or next of kin can request the record of a deceased relative. These records are very helpful in confirming whether someone was involved with the work of Bletchley Park, though they will not provide much detail about what the person did.

For information on requesting service records, go to
www.gov.uk/requests-for-personal-data-and-service-records

Unfortunately, equivalent records for wartime civilian personnel of Government Code and Cypher School were destroyed many years ago.

Add someone to the Roll of Honour

If you think that someone should be added to the Roll of Honour, please complete the Add A Record form here to tell us about them. Please provide as much information as possible, particularly where they worked, which service they were in, a brief description of what they did, approximate dates and, for those at Bletchley Park, which building or section they worked in and where they were billeted.

Please upload any documentary evidence, such as service records or appointment or reference letters from the Foreign Office.

We cannot accept nominations that just say ‘Bletchley Park’, or ‘not known’.

Veterans are most welcome to nominate themselves, and we hope they will agree to be interviewed by our Oral History Project.