William Clarke (cryptographer)
William Francis "Nobby" Clarke (1883–1961) was a British intelligence officer and cryptographer of naval codes in both World Wars. Background and early life Clarke was educated at Harrow School and Magdalen College, Oxford, and trained as a lawyer, being admitted to the bar in 1906 by his father, Sir Edward Clarke, a prominent lawyer and later Solicitor-General. Naval career In 1915, he was commissioned as an assistant paymaster, having failed the eye examination for executive officer. He knew German, and in March 1916 joined Room 40. His talent was for information analysis rather than code-breaking. He was on duty during the Battle of Jutland, and was unimpressed by the inefficient handling and distribution of intelligence. When Clarke and Francis Birch were chosen in 1919 to write a history of Room 40, their outspoken criticism of the Navy's mishandling of intelligence led to the history being allegedly "suppressed". Later career In 1919, Clarke joined the Governmen ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Harrow School
Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner and farmer, under a royal charter of Queen Elizabeth I. The school has an enrollment of about 820 boys, all of whom boarding school, board full-time, in twelve boarding houses. It was one of the seven public schools selected for reform in the Public Schools Act 1868. Harrow's uniform includes morning suits, Boater, straw boater hats, top hats and Walking stick, canes. Its list of distinguished alumni includes seven former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, British prime ministers: George Hamilton-Gordon, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, Spencer Perceval, Perceval, F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich, Goderich, Robert Peel, Peel, Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston, Palmerston, Stanley Baldwin, Baldwin and Winston Churchill, Churc ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and one of the strongest academically, setting the record for the highest Norrington Table, Norrington Score in 2010 and topping the table twice since then. It is home to several of the university's distinguished Chair (academic), chairs, including the Serena Professor of Italian#Serena Professors at Oxford, Agnelli-Serena Professorship, the Sherardian Professor of Botany, Sherardian Professorship, and the four Waynflete Professorships. The large, square Magdalen Tower is an Oxford landmark, and it is a tradition, dating to the days of Henry VII of England, Henry VII, that the college choir sings from the top of it at 6 a.m. on May Morning. The college stands next to the River Cherwell and the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. Within i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Edward Clarke (barrister)
Sir Edward George Clarke, King's counsel, KC (15 February 1841 – 26 April 1931) was a British barrister and politician, considered one of the leading advocates of the late Victorian era and serving as Solicitor General for England and Wales, Solicitor-General in the Conservative Party (UK), Conservative government of 1886–1892. His legal career included representing Oscar Wilde in his disastrous prosecution of the John Douglas, 9th Marquess of Queensberry, Marquess of Queensberry for libel, and representing the plaintiff in the "Royal baccarat scandal, baccarat case", during which Sir Edward cross-examined the Edward VII of the United Kingdom, Prince of Wales. He was a member of the Anti-suffragism, anti-women's suffrage movement. Background and early life Clarke was the son of J. G. Clarke of Moorgate Street, London. He was educated at King's College London. In 1859 he became a writer in India Office, but resigned in the next year, and became a law reporter. He obtained a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Room 40
Room 40, also known as 40 O.B. (old building; officially part of NID25), was the cryptanalysis section of the British Admiralty during the First World War. The group, which was formed in October 1914, began when Rear-Admiral Henry Oliver, the Director of Naval Intelligence, gave intercepts from the German radio station at Nauen, near Berlin, to Director of Naval Education Alfred Ewing, who constructed ciphers as a hobby. Ewing recruited civilians such as William Montgomery, a translator of theological works from German, and Nigel de Grey, a publisher. It was estimated that during the war Room 40 decrypted around 15,000 intercepted German communications from wireless and telegraph traffic. Most notably the section intercepted and decoded the Zimmermann Telegram, a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico. Its decoding has been described as the most significant intellig ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Battle Of Jutland
The Battle of Jutland () was a naval battle between Britain's Royal Navy Grand Fleet, under Admiral John Jellicoe, 1st Earl Jellicoe, Sir John Jellicoe, and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet, under Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer, during the First World War. The battle unfolded in extensive manoeuvring and three main engagements from 31 May to 1 June 1916, off the North Sea coast of Denmark's Jutland Peninsula. It was the largest naval battle and only full-scale clash of battleships of the war, and the outcome ensured that the Royal Navy denied the German surface fleet access to the North Sea and the Atlantic for the remainder of the war. Germany avoided all fleet-to-fleet contact thereafter. Jutland was also the last major naval battle, in any war, fought primarily by battleships. Germany's High Seas Fleet intended to lure out, trap, and destroy a portion of the British Grand Fleet. The German naval force was insufficient to openly engage the British fleet. This was par ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Francis Birch (cryptographer)
Francis Lyall "Frank" Birch, (5 December 1889 – 14 February 1956) was a British cryptographer and actor. He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. During World War I, he served as a lieutenant commander with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and served in the Atlantic, the Channel and the Dardanelles before joining the Naval Intelligence Division (Room 40) from 1916 to 1919. Birch wrote a satirical history of Room 40, ''Alice in ID25''. Birch was appointed an OBE in 1919. He was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, between 1915 and 1934 and a lecturer in history at Cambridge from 1921 until 1928. Birch left Cambridge to pursue an acting career in the 1930s, including the role of Widow Twankey in pantomime. In 1939, he was part of a BBC television production in a Teresa Deevy play "In Search of Valour". He joined the Naval section at Bletchley Park in September 1939, and later became Head of the (German) Naval Section. He had to face the short ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Government Code And Cypher School
The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) was a British signals intelligence agency set up in 1919. During the First World War, the British Army and Royal Navy had separate signals intelligence agencies, MI1b and NID25 (initially known as Room 40) respectively. It was particularly known for its work on codebreaking at Bletchley Park and after the war became the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ). Interwar period In 1919, the Cabinet's Secret Service Committee, chaired by Lord Curzon, recommended that a peacetime codebreaking agency should be created, a task which was given to the Director of Naval Intelligence, Hugh Sinclair.Johnson, 1997, p. 44 Sinclair merged staff from NID25 and MI1b into the new organisation, which initially consisted of around 25–30 officers and a similar number of clerical staff. It was titled the "Government Code and Cypher School" (GC&CS), a cover-name which was chosen by Victor Forbes of the Foreign Office. Alastair Denniston, who h ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Church Of All Saints, Selworthy
The Church of All Saints which sits on a hillside above Selworthy, Somerset, England is a whitewashed 15th-century Church, with a 14th-century tower. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade I listed building. The pulpit includes a 17th-century hourglass and the iron-bound parish chest dates from the same time. Within the church is a copy of the Chained Book of 1609 by Bishop John Jewel, entitled ''Defense of the Apologie of the Church of England''. In the churchyard is a medieval cross with three octagonal steps, a square socket, and an octagonal shaft. The head is missing. The churchyard provides views across the valley to Dunkery Beacon. The Second World War cryptographer, William Clarke is buried there.Joseph A. Maiolo, 'Clarke, William Francis (1883–1961)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 See also * Grade I listed buildings in West Somerset * List of Somerset towers * List of ecclesiastical parishes in the Diocese ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1883 Births
Events January * January 4 – ''Life (magazine), Life'' magazine is founded in Los Angeles, California, United States. * January 10 – A Newhall House Hotel Fire, fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people. * January 16 – The Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act, establishing the United States civil service, is passed. * January 19 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires begins service in Roselle, New Jersey, United States, installed by Thomas Edison. February * February 15 – Tokyo Electrical Lightning Grid, predecessor of Tokyo Electrical Power (TEPCO), one of the largest electrical grids in Asia and the world, is founded in Japan. * February 16 – The ''Ladies' Home Journal'' is published for the first time, in the United States. * February 23 – Alabama becomes the first U.S. state to enact an Competition law, antitrust law. * February 28 – The first vaudeville th ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1961 Deaths
Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and consular relations with Cuba (Cuba–United States relations are restored in 2015). ** Aero Flight 311 (Koivulahti air disaster): Douglas DC-3C OH-LCC of Finnish airline Finnair, Aero crashes near Kvevlax (Koivulahti), on approach to Vaasa Airport in Finland, killing all 25 on board, due to pilot error: an investigation finds that the Captain (civil aviation), captain and First officer (civil aviation), first officer were both exhausted for lack of sleep, and had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol at the time of the crash. It remains the deadliest air disaster to occur in the country. * January 5 ** Italian sculptor Alfredo Fioravanti enters the U.S. Consulate in Rome, and confesses that he was part of the team that forged the Etruscan terra ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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People Educated At Harrow School
The term "the people" refers to the public or common mass of people of a polity. As such it is a concept of human rights law, international law as well as constitutional law, particularly used for claims of popular sovereignty. In contrast, a people is any plurality of persons considered as a whole. Used in politics and law, the term "a people" refers to the collective or community of an ethnic group or nation. Concepts Legal Chapter One, Article One of the Charter of the United Nations states that "peoples" have the right to self-determination. Though the mere status as peoples and the right to self-determination, as for example in the case of Indigenous peoples (''peoples'', as in all groups of indigenous people, not merely all indigenous persons as in ''indigenous people''), does not automatically provide for independent sovereignty and therefore secession. Indeed, judge Ivor Jennings identified the inherent problems in the right of "peoples" to self-determination, as i ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Alumni Of Magdalen College, Oxford
Alumni (: alumnus () or alumna ()) are former students or graduates of a school, college, or university. The feminine plural alumnae is sometimes used for groups of women, and alums (: alum) or alumns (: alumn) as gender-neutral alternatives. The word comes from Latin, meaning nurslings, pupils or foster children, derived from "to nourish". The term is not synonymous with "graduates": people can be alumni without graduating, e.g. Burt Reynolds was an alumnus of Florida State University but did not graduate. The term is sometimes used to refer to former employees, former members of an organization, former contributors, or former inmates. Etymology The Latin noun means "foster son" or "pupil". It is derived from the Latin verb "to nourish". Separate, but from the same root, is the adjective "nourishing", found in the phrase '' alma mater'', a title for a person's home university. Usage in Roman law In Latin, is a legal term (Roman law) to describe a child placed in foster ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |