Sir Leonard James (Joe) Hooper (23 July 1914 – 19 February 1994) was director of the British

signals intelligence Signals intelligence (SIGINT) is the act and field of intelligence-gathering by interception of ''signals'', whether communications between people (communications intelligence—abbreviated to COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly u ...

agency,

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 ...

, a post he held from 1965 to 1973.

Career

Educated at

Alleyn's School Alleyn's School is a 4–18 Mixed-sex education, co-educational, independent, day school and sixth form in Dulwich, London, England. It is a registered charity and was originally part of Edward Alleyn's College of God's Gift charitable foundatio ...

in South East

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 ...

and

Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College ( ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in 1714 by the benefaction of Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet (1648–1701) of Norgrove, Worcestershire, whose coat of arms was ad ...

, Hooper joined 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 ...

in August 1938, and was based 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 ...

during

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 ...

. He stayed on with the organisation after the war, which became GCHQ, and, after five years as deputy director, served as its director from January 1965 to November 1973. In the mid-1970s he served as the

Intelligence Co-ordinator The Intelligence Co-ordinator, later Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator, was a senior post in the Cabinet Office of the British Civil Service that oversaw the intelligence services and their relationship to the government. Post holders *1968� ...

in the Cabinet Office, where he acted as a general overseer of the UK Intelligence Community.

References

1914 births 1994 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Directors of the Government Communications Headquarters Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Bletchley Park people Alumni of Worcester College, Oxford People educated at Alleyn's School {{crypto-bio-stub