Joshua Edward Synge ('Josh') Cooper CB, CMG (3 April 1901 in

Fulham Fulham () is an area of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham in West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It lies in a loop on the north bank of the River Thames, bordering Hammersmith, Kensington and Chelsea, London, Chelsea ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

– 24 June 1981 in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

) was an English cryptographer. Josh was the eldest son of Richard Edward Synge Cooper and his wife Mary Eleanor Burke who were married in Dublin exactly a year before his birth. He was educated at Shrewsbury School,

Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The l ...

, and

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

. He joined the Government Code and Cypher School as a Junior Assistant in October 1925 to specialise in Russian codes and ciphers. He was down from

with a First in Russian and was teaching at a preparatory school in

Margate Margate is a seaside resort, seaside town in the Thanet District of Kent, England. It is located on the north coast of Kent and covers an area of long, north-east of Canterbury and includes Cliftonville, Garlinge, Palm Bay, UK, Palm Bay and W ...

. Then a sister of the novelist Charles Morgan said that Russian linguists were needed "at a place in Queen’s Gate". He was assigned to Ernst Fetterlein to work on Soviet diplomatic ciphers, with an Army officer, Capt. A.C. Stuart Smith. The first message he read was from Moscow to the Soviet representative in Washington, about the repudiation of debts by American states. In late 1929 to 1930 he was in the Naval Section attacking Russian Naval Codes, and was sent to Sarafand for a fifteen-month investigation of Black Sea Fleet communications. In 1936 he was made Head of the new Air Section at GC&CS. At Bletchley Park in World War II he was head of the Air Section. He was awarded a C.M.G. in 1943 and a C.B. in 1958. Postwar Joshua wrote what some considered ''the best Russian grammar ever published''. His brother Arthur (born 1916) was also a linguist (Chinese and Japanese) at the FECB then FRUMEL; ''a bit eccentric but said to be a model of sanity compared with Joshua''. Postwar Arthur translated ''Li Po and Tu Fu'', a book of Chinese lyric poems, for the Penguin Classics series.

References

Dictionary of National Biography The ''Dictionary of National Biography'' (''DNB'') is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published since 1885. The updated ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (''ODNB'') was published on 23 September ...

*''Action this Day'' edited by Michael Smith & Ralph Erskine (2001, Bantam London) * 1901 births 1981 deaths People educated at Shrewsbury School Alumni of Brasenose College, Oxford Alumni of King's College London 20th-century cryptographers British cryptographers Companions of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Bletchley Park people Foreign Office personnel of World War II Extensive references to Josh Cooper in Station X by Michael Smith 1998 {{crypto-bio-stub