SirFrancis Harry Hinsley,OBE,FBA (26 November 1918 – 16 February 1998) was an English intelligence officer and historian. He worked atBletchley Park during theSecond World War and wrote widely on the history ofinternational relations andBritish Intelligence during the Second World War. He was known as Harry Hinsley.
Sir Harry Hinsley | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Francis Harry Hinsley (1918-11-26)26 November 1918 Walsall,Staffordshire, England |
| Died | 16 February 1998(1998-02-16) (aged 79) Cambridge, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Historian |
| Known for | Cryptography |
| Spouse | Hilary Brett-Smith |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | St John's College, Cambridge |
| Academic work | |
| Institutions | Cambridge University 1949–65 |
| Notable works | British Intelligence in the Second World War (1979–90);Codebreakers: The inside story of Bletchley Park (1993) |
Early life
editHinsley's father worked in the coal department of the WalsallCo-Op.[1] His mother Emma Hinsley (née Adey) was a school caretaker and they lived inBirchills, in the parish of St Andrew's, Walsall. Harry was educated atQueen Mary's Grammar School,Walsall and, in 1937, won a scholarship to read history atSt. John's College,Cambridge.[2] He went on to be awarded afirst in part one of the HistoricalTripos.[1]
In August 1939, Hinsley visited his girlfriend in the German city ofKoblenz. Police required him to report to the police station daily. However, this requirement was waived following the signing of theGerman-Soviet Pact. A week later, Hinsley was advised by police via his girlfriend's parents to get out ofGermany by "tomorrow at the latest". This enabled him to cross theFranco-German border before it was closed. He made the crossing at the bridge betweenKehl andStrasbourg. Stripped of hisReichsmarks by German border guards withoutfrancs orsterling in exchange, Hinsley was left penniless. This led to his sleeping on a park bench inFrance. Hinsleyhitch-hiked toSwitzerland from where he returned to theUnited Kingdom. He made his return just before Britain declared war on Germany.[3] In October 1939, while still at St. John's, he was summoned to an interview withAlastair Denniston, head of theGovernment Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), and was thereby recruited to Bletchley Park's naval section inHut 4.[4] He abandoned his degree course and thereafter never completed it.[5]
Bletchley Park
editAtBletchley Park, Hinsley studied the external characteristics of intercepted German messages, a process sometimes termed "traffic analysis": from call signs, frequencies, times of interception and so forth, he was able to deduce a great deal of information about the structure of Nazi Germany'sKriegsmarine's communication networks and even about the structure of the German navy itself.[6]
Hinsley helped initiate a programme of seizingEnigma machines and keys from Germanweather ships, such as theLauenburg, thereby facilitating Bletchley Park's resumption of interrupted breaking of German Naval Enigma. He realised that, as the ships were on station for long periods, they would have to carry the code books (which changed every month) for subsequent months; these would likely be in a locked safe and might be overlooked when the crew threw Enigma materials (including the code book currently in use) overboard if the ship was boarded, an assumption which proved correct.[7]
In late 1943, Hinsley was sent to liaise with theUS Navy inWashington, with the result that an agreement was reached in January 1944 to co-operate in exchanging results onJapanese Naval signals.[8]
Towards the end of the war, Hinsley, by then a key aide to Bletchley Park chiefEdward Travis, was part of a committee which argued for a post-war intelligence agency that would combine both signals intelligence and human intelligence in a single organisation. In the event, the opposite occurred, with GC&CS becomingGCHQ.[9]
On 6 April 1946, Hinsley married Hilary Brett-Smith, a graduate fromSomerville College, Oxford, who had also worked at Bletchley Park, inHut 8.[2] They moved to Cambridge after the war where Hinsley had been elected aFellow at St. John's College.[1]
Hinsley was awarded theOBE in 1946 and was knighted in 1985.[2]
On his death, Sir Harry Hinsley was cremated and his family buried the ashes privately inCambridge.
Historian
editAfter the war, Hinsley returned to St John's College and lectured in history; in 1969, he was appointedProfessor of the History ofInternational Relations.[2] From 1979 to 1989, he was Master of St John's College and, from 1981 to 1983, he wasvice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge.[10] In 1981 he was made an honorary fellow ofTrinity College Dublin.[11]
In 1962, Hinsley publishedPower and the Pursuit of Peace, which is important as a study of early idealist thought about international relations.[12]
Hinsley edited the multi-volume official historyBritish Intelligence in the Second World War and argued that Enigmadecryption had speeded Allied victory by one to four years but had not fundamentally altered the war's outcome.
He was criticised byMarian Rejewski[13] andGordon Welchman,[14] who took exception to inaccuracies in Hinsley's accounts of the history of Enigma decryption in the early volumes of his official history, including crucial errors in chronology. Subsequently, a revised account of the Polish, French and British contribution was included in Volume 3, Part 2.
The following volumes ofBritish Intelligence in the Second World War were edited by Hinsley and published by Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO) London:
- Volume 1: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. F. G. Ransome and R. C. Knight, (1979, HMSO)ISBN 0-11-630933-4
- Volume 2: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. F. G. Ransome and R. C. Knight, (1981, HMSO)ISBN 0-11-630934-2
- Volume 3, Part 1: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. F. G. Ransome and R. C. Knight, (1984, HMSO)ISBN 0-11-630935-0
- Volume 3, Part 2: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. A. G. Simkins, and C. F. G. Ransom, (1988, HMSO)ISBN 0-11-630940-7
- IncludesBibliography (pages 961–974), andThe Polish, French and British Contributions to the Breaking of the Enigma; a Revised Account (Appendix 30, pages 945–959).
- Volume 4: Security and Counter-Intelligence, F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, (1990, HMSO)ISBN 0-11-630952-0
- Abridged Version, F. H. Hinsley, (1993, HMSO)ISBN 0-11-630956-3 (& 1993, Cambridge University Press)ISBN 0-521-44304-0
Hinsley also co-edited (with Alan Stripp) and contributed toCodebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park, which contains personal accounts from those who worked at Bletchley Park.[15]
The Hinsley Memorial Lecture, an annual lecture on aninternational relations topic, is held every year at St John's College in memory of Hinsley.[16]
He is commemorated by ablue plaque on his birthplace in Walsall.
References
edit- ^abc"Obituary: Professor Sir Harry Hinsley".The Independent. 19 February 1998.Archived from the original on 9 May 2022. Retrieved9 April 2018.
- ^abcdLanghorne, 2004
- ^Sebag-Montefiore, Hugh (2004) [2000].Enigma: The Battle for the Code (Cassell Military Paperbacks ed.). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.ISBN 978-0-297-84251-4.
- ^Kahn, 1991, p. 120
- ^Sisman, Adam (2019).The Professor and the Parson: A Story of Desire, Deceit and Defrocking. Profile Books. p. 96.ISBN 978-1-78283-530-1.
- ^Kahn, 1991, p. 121
- ^Dr. Mark Baldwin, "The Enigma Machine", presentation to the BCS Tayside & Fife Branch, Abertay University, 26 August 2019
- ^Michael Smith, "How the British Broke Japan's Codes", p. 148 inAction this Day, edited by Ralph Erskine and Michael Smith, 2001
- ^Michael Smith, prefatory remarks to Richard J. Aldrich, "Cold War Codebreaking and Beyond: The Legacy of Bletchley Park", p. 403 inAction this Day, edited by Ralph Erskine and Michael Smith, 2001
- ^"Vice-Chancellor's Office". 26 May 2023.
- ^Webb, D.A. (1992). J.R., Barlett (ed.).Trinity College Dublin Record Volume 1991. Dublin: Trinity College Dublin Press.ISBN 1-871408-07-5.
- ^Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962.
- ^Marian Rejewski, "Remarks on Appendix 1 toBritish Intelligence in the Second World War by F. H. Hinsley," translated byChristopher Kasparek,Cryptologia, vol. 6, no. 1 (January 1982), pp. 75–83.
- ^Gordon Welchman, "From Polish Bomba to British Bombe: the Birth of Ultra,"Intelligence and National Security, vol. 1, no. 1, 1986, pp. 71–110.
- ^Hinsley, F.H.; Stripp, Alan, eds. (1993) [1992],Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park, Oxford: Oxford University Press,ISBN 978-0-19-280132-6
- ^"Distinguished Lecture Series - St John's College, Cambridge".
Sources
edit- Erskine, Ralph;Smith, Michael, eds. (2011),The Bletchley Park Codebreakers, Biteback Publishing Ltd,ISBN 978-1-84954-078-0 Updated and extended version ofAction This Day: From Breaking of the Enigma Code to the Birth of the Modern Computer Bantam Press 2001
- Kahn, David (1991).Seizing the Enigma,ISBN 0-395-42739-8.
- Langhorne, Richard (2004). "Hinsley, Sir (Francis) Harry (1918–1998)", in theOxford Dictionary of National Biography.
External links
edit| Academic offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Master of St John's College, Cambridge 1979–1989 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 1981–1983 | Succeeded by |