Nigel de Grey (27 March 1886 – 25 May 1951) was a British codebreaker. Son of the rector of

Copdock Copdock is a village and former civil parish, now in the parish of Copdock and Washbrook, in the Babergh District, Babergh district, in the county of Suffolk, England. In 1961 the civil parish had a population of 399. Location Copdock is south ...

, Suffolk, and grandson of the 5th Lord Walsingham, he was educated at

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

and became fluent in French and German. In 1907 he joined the publishing firm of

William Heinemann William Henry Heinemann (18 May 1863 – 5 October 1920) was an English publisher of Jewish descent and the founder of the Heinemann publishing house in London. Early life On 18 May 1863, William Heinemann was born in Surbiton, Surrey, Englan ...

. As he was shy and physically small, a colleague labelled him "the dormouse".

World War I

Nigel de Grey joined the

Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Roya ...

and served in

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. In September 1915 he was transferred to Naval Intelligence Division,

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 ...

codebreaking section. He,

Dilly Knox Alfred Dillwyn "Dilly" Knox, CMG (23 July 1884 – 27 February 1943) was an English classics scholar and papyrologist at King's College, Cambridge and a codebreaker. As a member of the Room 40 codebreaking unit he helped decrypt the Zimme ...

and Reverend William Montgomery decrypted the Zimmermann Telegram on 17 January 1917. The Zimmermann Telegram was from the

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foreign secretary Arthur Zimmermann to the German ambassador Heinrich von Eckardt in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, telling him to offer the Mexican government the return of the states of Arizona, Texas and New Mexico as an inducement to Mexico to side with Germany against the United States. The public disclosure of this secret Mexican-German pact brought the US into

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. Later in 1917, de Grey was promoted, assigned to run the NID's Mediterranean section in Rome, to liaise with the director of Italian naval intelligence and to focus on Austrian cipher traffic.

World War II

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Nigel de Grey was assigned to the

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 R ...

(GC&CS) at

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 ...

, where he concentrated on German traffic encrypted on the Enigma cipher machine. In September 1941 he provided a report to the

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

with the first references from German authorities to their own police battalions systematically levelling villages and removing their populations. One signal boasted of 30,000 executions "in the central area". Following a warning made in a speech to parliament by Churchill, a German circular in October 1941 cautioned that no further references to "sensitive operations" should be made on wireless channels. The intelligence collected by De Grey from the German Domino cypher later played an indirect role in building the evidence case at the Nuremberg Trials. After World War II de Grey remained with GC&CS, which became

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 ...

in 1946. Eventually he became a deputy director and led a team working on Soviet cable traffic. He retired in 1951 and died a very short time later of a heart-attack in Piccadilly, London. His wife, whom he married in 1910, survived him.

References

* Nigel West, "Grey, Nigel Arthur de (1886-1951)" in the ''

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

'' * Paul Gannon, "Inside Room 40: The Codebreakers of World War I", London, 2010 {{DEFAULTSORT:De Grey, Nigel British cryptographers 20th-century cryptographers Bletchley Park people 1886 births 1951 deaths Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War I Signals intelligence of World War I Nigel People educated at Eton College People from Babergh District Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire Companions_of_the_Order_of_St_Michael_and_St_George