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Olga Gray and the Woolwich Arsenal Spy Ring
In 1938, thanks to years of work by a remarkable female agent, MI5 ensured a package of British defence plans stayed secret.
Series
Government Code and Cypher School and predecessor: Meteorological Section: Correspondence
Catalogue reference: HW 54
What's it about?
HW 54
Correspondence of the Meteorological Section with various customers of meteorological intelligence and providers of intercepted material.
Full description and record details
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Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
- HW 54
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Title (The name of the record)
- Government Code and Cypher School and predecessor: Meteorological Section: Correspondence
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Date (When the record was created)
- 1939-1945
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Description (What the record is about)
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Correspondence of the Meteorological Section with various customers of meteorological intelligence and providers of intercepted material.
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Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
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Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
- Public Record(s)
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Language (The language of the record)
- English
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Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
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- Government Code and Cypher School, Meteorological Section, 1941-1945
- Meteorological Office, 1867-1867
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Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
- 18 volume(s)
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Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
- Open
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Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
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From 2004 Government Communications Headquarters
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Subjects (Categories and themes found in our collection (our subject list is under development, and some records may have no subjects or fewer than expected))
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- Topics
- Intelligence
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Accumulation dates (The dates the record was accumulated)
- 1939-1945
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Accruals (Indicates whether the archive expects to receive further records in future)
- Series is accruing
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Selection and destruction information (Information about how the record was selected for archiving)
- All surviving records selected under Acquisition Policy criterion 2.2.1.3, documenting the use made of intercepted enemy meteorological communications for defence purposes during World War Two.
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Administrative / biographical background (Historical or biographical information about the creator of the record and the context of its creation)
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The Meteorological Section of the Government Code and Cypher School was established at Bletchley Park in 1941 to work on the decryption and interpretation of intercepted messages from enemy weather stations. This work had initially been performed by the Meteorological Service from the outbreak of the war. The intelligence derived from these intercepts was used both to inform the Meteorological Office (which continued to be responsible for the distribution of weather forecasts based in part on intercepted messages), and, crucially, to find ways into other enemy codes of military and strategic importance.
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Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C16155/
Catalogue hierarchy
Over 27 million records
This record is held at The National Archives, Kew
17,110 records
Within the department: HW
Records created or inherited by Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)
You are currently looking at the series: HW 54
Government Code and Cypher School and predecessor: Meteorological Section: Correspondence
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