AGD’s 1939 passport, now on display at Bletchley Park
The entries in AGD’s diary in August 1941 when he flew to the USA for a meeting with codebreakers there.
Memo to AGD prior to USA visit, 5 August 1941 (author unknown)
AGD memo, 29 September 1941, following his visit to USA
Bletchley Park staff c1940/41: seated (left to right), E. M. Smith, Edmund Green, Barbara Abernethy, Patrick Wilkinson and Alan Bradshaw; standing (left to right), Philip Howse, Stephen Wills, Captain Ridley, John Barns, George McVittie, Marjorie de Haan and A.G. Denniston, head of GC&CS.
Extract from US Embassy, London, memo June 6 1943 concerning Arlington Hall’s liaison with Berkeley Street
Bletchley Park (above, and below, plan of the grounds)
AGD memo to Washington, 23 December 1941.
Intercepted cable from Japanese Foreign Minister to Japanese Embassy in London, dated 25 November, 1941. NB Churchill’s annotated footnote: ‘Fear! Fear may not prevent, may even provoke, action. But it is a fact all the same.’
Kim Philby at a press conference in 1955
AGD at his daughter’s wedding in 1958
‘D.G.’ was Dorothy Gilliat, one of the five children of a successful Leeds businessman, Arthur Gilliat, himself the youngest of ten children. ‘D’ as she was known to her sisters, born in 1891, was the clever one and went up to read English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. She was a beauty and had many admirers, most of whom died in the Great War. Her closest friend was my father’s sister, Biddy Briggs. Through Biddy ‘D’ met my father. They were married in 1917. After the war, they lived in Chelsea, moved out of London to the outer suburbs because of my health in 1936, and lived near BP from 1939 till 1942. ‘D’, a linguist with good French and German and an excellent English writing style, worked as a watchkeeper at BP till my father’s job required him to return to London. She was the soul of discretion, She sent us a telegram in late 1957 to say she had a mammary tumour, from which she died a few months later. Her only obituary called her ‘one of the quiet ones’. She was a wonderful mother. R.I.P.
By the Same Author
THE YOUNG MUSICIANS (Chatto and Windus) 1955
THE MAN WHO MADE THE WORLD (Brockhampton Pesss) 1965
PARTLY LIVING: Some understanding of experience (Geoffrey Bles) 1967
ANATOMY OF SCOTLAND (Chambers) co-editor 1992
YARDLEY’S DIPLOMATIC SECRETS (Cryptologia) 1994
CHURCHILL’S SECRET WAR (Sutton) 1997
TREVOR HUDDLESTON: A LIFE (Macmillan) 1999
Copyright
© Robin Denniston 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The right of Robin Denniston to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN 978–0–9549137–5–5
First published in 2007 by
Polperro Heritage Press,
Clifton-upon-Teme, Worcestershire
WR6 6EN
United Kingdom
www.polperropress.co.uk
Cover design
Steve Bowgen
Thirty Secret Years Page 20