Record revealed
Photograph of the Jubilee Singers
This photo shows an African American student choir who toured the UK and whose performances were attended by Queen Victoria and the Prime Minister.
Series
Government Code and Cypher School: Directorate: Second World War Policy Papers
Catalogue reference: HW 14
What's it about?
HW 14
This series provides day to day detail of the workings of the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) following its move from Broadway Buildings in London to Bletchley Park (BP) at the start of the Second World War. The directorate papers...
Full description and record details
-
Reference (The unique identifier to the record described, used to order and refer to it)
-
HW 14
-
Title (The name of the record)
- Government Code and Cypher School: Directorate: Second World War Policy Papers
-
Date (When the record was created)
-
1933-1949
-
Description (What the record is about)
-
This series provides day to day detail of the workings of the Government Code and Cypher School (GCCS) following its move from Broadway Buildings in London to Bletchley Park (BP) at the start of the Second World War.
The directorate papers reflect the enormous expansion of the British Signals Intelligence (Sigint) Organisation and the ever-increasing demands placed on GCCS to break the numerous Enigma cyphers used by diverse elements of the German war machine and also other important codes and cyphers in use throughout the world.
Miscellaneous papers include a large number associated with BP's daily liaison with the Sigint Combined Bureau (CBME) in Cairo and with sigint operations by all three Services both in the Middle East (ME) and in other areas and with the Admiralty, War Office and Air Ministry.
Other papers reflect the initial Sigint liaison between GCCS and the United States from July 1940 until July 1942, including the visit to Bletchley Park in Feb 1941 of the first US Joint Services Sigint delegation and the historic successful visit to the US in Aug/Sept 1941 by Cdr AG Denniston, then Head of GCCS.
-
Arrangement (Information about the filing sequence or logical order of the record)
-
Arrangement
Apart from HW 14/45-47, all papers are placed in chronological order as pieces covering periods of from ten days to two months. An attempt has been made in each piece to group associated items together in the listing although no attempt has been made to group associated papers in each piece. After HW 14/ 47 all other UK-US liaison is incorporated in chronological order with other Bletchley Park related papers.
-
Held by (Who holds the record)
- The National Archives, Kew
-
Legal status (A note as to whether the record being described is a Public Record or not)
-
Public Record(s)
-
Language (The language of the record)
-
English
-
Creator(s) (The creator of the record)
- Foreign Office, Government Code and Cypher School, 1922-1946
-
Physical description (The amount and form of the record)
-
164 files and papers
-
Access conditions (Information on conditions that restrict or affect access to the record)
-
Open
-
Immediate source of acquisition (When and where the record was acquired from)
-
1998-2004 Government Communications Headquarters
-
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))
-
Accruals (Indicates whether the archive expects to receive further records in future)
-
Series is not accruing
-
Unpublished finding aids (A note of unpublished indexes, lists or guides to the record)
- There is a key to abbreviations with the series list in the reading rooms at The National Archives, Kew.
-
Record URL
- https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/C9293/
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 14
Government Code and Cypher School: Directorate: Second World War Policy Papers
You may be interested in
-
-
Record revealed
Japanese Instrument of Surrender, 1945
After six years of brutal global conflict, this document marked the end of the Second World War. -
Focus on
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.
Related records
Records that share similar topics with this record.