Cecilia Elspeth Giles

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(18 September 1922 – 19 April 2020) was a Scottish university administrator and a

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

veteran.

Life

Giles was born in

Dumfries Dumfries ( ; ; from ) is a market town and former royal burgh in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, near the mouth of the River Nith on the Solway Firth, from the Anglo-Scottish border. Dumfries is the county town of the Counties of Scotland, ...

, Scotland to Dr and Mrs Falconer Giles. Her father was a Reader in Ancient Greek and Roman history. She attended

St Trinnean's St Trinnean's was a progressive education, progressive girls' school in Edinburgh. It was founded in 1922 by its headmistress, Catherine Fraser Lee, who followed the Dalton Plan so that pupils could study what they wished and there was no h ...

girls' school before going on to Queen Margaret's, Scarborough. She liked this school and remained in the old pupils' association serving as an honorary vice president. She studied history at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, and while at university was invited to attend an interview for an unspecified job. The interview was in London and there she learned that she was being recruited to work at

. She was interviewed by the Director of Military Intelligence. Ailsa Maxwell, a fellow student at the University of Edinburgh, accepted a similar offer. SIXTA team at Bletchley Park screenshot

Giles was enrolled in a unit of the

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the World War II, Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existe ...

attached to the Intelligence Corps. She took a six-week course studying

cryptography Cryptography, or cryptology (from "hidden, secret"; and ''graphein'', "to write", or ''-logy, -logia'', "study", respectively), is the practice and study of techniques for secure communication in the presence of Adversary (cryptography), ...

and the

Enigma Machine The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the W ...

, coming top of her class. She worked in the ATS Military Section SIXTA analysing messages that cryptographers had cracked. Having signed the

Official Secrets Act An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of Classified information, state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. However, in its unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secret ...

, she never discussed her war time activities. At the end of the war she was moved to

Eastcote Eastcote is a suburban area in the London Borough of Hillingdon, in West London, west Greater London, London. In the Middle Ages, Eastcote was one of the three areas that made up the parish of Ruislip, under the name of Ascot. The name came fr ...

in London where

GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primar ...

was being formed. The new unit consisted of experienced codebreakers like herself who had worked in the United Kingdom, and others returning from the front. She left in 1946 and went back to work at the University of Edinburgh. She visited her brother in Africa and was then based at

Khartoum University The University of Khartoum (U of K) () is a public university located in Khartoum, Sudan. It is the largest and oldest university in Sudan. UofK was founded as Gordon Memorial College in 1902 and established in 1956 when Sudan gained independence ...

for an academic year helping with administration. She returned to the University of Edinburgh where she spent the remainder of her career organising their administration. In 2017 she was an Honorary Vice-President of her

Edinburgh University Students' Association Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) is the students' union at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Association's aim is the advancement of education of Edinburgh students by representing and supporting them, and by promoting t ...

. Giles died in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in 2020 at the age of 97.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Giles, Cecily 1922 births 2020 deaths People from Dumfries British cryptographers People associated with the University of Edinburgh Bletchley Park people Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Commanders of the Order of the British Empire