Jerry Roberts

Captain Jerry Roberts (Raymond C. Roberts) was born at Wembley, London in November 1920. His father was a pharmacist and his mother an organist who played in the local chapel.

During World War II, his tutor, Prof. Leonard Willoughby recommended him to Army Intelligence in London, he joined Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). He was a senior cryptanalyst and linguist, and worked at Bletchley Park from September 1941 to May 1945, first working on German Military Police Double Playfair ciphers. He was one of four founder members of the 'Testery' in July 1942 when it was set up to work on the breaking of Tunny the German top-level cipher system. He was made shift leader, worked on daily breaking of Tunny until the end of the war.^[1]

From 1945-47 he was a member of the War Crimes Investigation Unit. Thereafter he pursued a career in marketing for 50 years, forming his own marketing research companies in 1970 until they were sold to GfK NOP (National Opinion Polls) in 1993 and continued working as a consultant to NOP assisting with multi-country studies until he was nearly eighty.

Roberts was educated at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith in London 1933-39. He then went on to University College London 1939-41. Under the distinguished Professor Leonard Willoughby he gained a degree in German and French. Professor Willoughby had worked during the First World War in Room 40, the main cipher-breaking unit of that time, who recommended Roberts to the Foreign Office at GC&CS. After interview he was accepted to work as a cryptanalyst at the Bletchley Park headquarters.

Capt. Roberts was one of three original cryptanalysts, a founding member and linguist of the Testery. The other two were Maj. Denis Oswald and Capt. Peter Ericsson, the Testery under Maj. Ralph Tester task for breaking Tunny from July 1942, all four spoke fluent German. By the end of the War, the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts, a team of 24 ATS, a total staff of 118, organised in three shifts working round the clock. Messages broken by hand amounted to 1.5 million pieces within 1 year of its foundation. After the Testery had been breaking Tunny for a year by hand, the Newmanry became active in July 1943. The Newmanry developed and used machine methods to help speed up one stage - breaking of the chi-wheels but the psi-wheels and motor-wheels were still broken by hand in the Testery. From mid-1943 onwards, the Testery is credited with breaking over 90% of Tunny traffic.

Tunny was the top-level cipher system used between Army HQ in Berlin and the Generals and Field Marshals in the field. Many were signed by Field Marshals; von Rundstedt, Rommel, Keitel, Jodl etc. – as well as a number of messages signed by Hitler himself. Tunny had 12-wheel and was very advanced. It was more complex, faster and more secure than the 3-wheel Enigma machine. Tens of thousands of Tunny messages were intercepted by the British and broken at Bletchley Park by Capt. Roberts and his fellow code-breakers in the Testery. These messages contained much vital insight into top-level German thinking and planning.

After the War, (1945–1947), Roberts continued to use his fluent German and French in the War Crimes Investigation Unit, and spent the next two years driving about the British Zone of Germany and France interviewing witnesses, victims and sometimes the accused in various war cases, taking legal statements from them (in German or French) for use in court.

Then Roberts went on to work for the next 50 years in Marketing and Research. 1948 - 1954 Started in market research in London working for Market Information Services (M.I.S a leading Market Research firm).
1954 - 1959 In Caracas, Venezuela, Roberts was invited to set up the first general research company in South America (where he learned fluent Spanish) and developed the company DATOS.
1960 Roberts spent the year in New York, as a manager representing a major international advertising agency (CPV).
1961 - 1969 Roberts returned to London as board director of M.I.S.
1970 - 1993 Roberts set up his own companies: Roberts Research Ltd and Euroresearch Ltd, and applied his language skills to pioneering multi-country market research studies across Europe for leading UK and multinational companies. Roberts carried out Market Research for a wide range of leading UK and international clients in the fields of product marketing, public opinion and media research. His clients included British Gas, Reebok trainers, DuPont (Teflon, Lycra etc.), American Airlines, Chrysler cars, Holiday Inn hotels, and many others. In 1993, he sold both of his companies to GfK NOP.

Roberts met Mei 1990 in London. They married soon after. Mei is an artist and book illustrator.

Roberts today (age 90 in 2010), is the last survivor of the nine cryptanalysts who worked on Tunny. Information relating to Tunny was only declassified a few years ago, but most of the Testery cryptographers had died before they could make their knowledge public. As recently as 2006 Prof. Copeland’s book Colossus contained the first published accounts of the Testery and told the stories of some of the people involved. For the last three years, Roberts has been busy raising public awareness of the important work carried out in the Testery during World War II, and seeks better recognition for Bletchley Park heroes.

Roberts is calling for a public monument, preferably in central London, dedicated particularly to three unsung heroes; the mathematician Bill Tutte, who broke the Tunny system in 1942, helping to shorten the War by at least two years; the pioneer of modern computing, Tommy Flowers; and Alan Turing, who probably saved Britain by breaking the Enigma naval code, which enabled many Atlantic convoys to avoid packs of German U-boats. The country was lucky to have these brilliant men in the right place at the right time. Without these three great minds and the many other supporting personnel at Bletchley Park, we could easily have lost the War.

In October 2011, Roberts was featured in a BBC Timewatch Special titled Code-Breakers: Bletchley Park's Lost Heroes; first broadcast on BBC Two on 25th October 2011, and repeated on 29th October on BBC Two.

List of senior executives and codebreakers on Tunny in the Testery

• Ralph Tester linguist and head of Testery
• Jerry Roberts shift-leader, linguist and senior codebreaker
• Peter Ericsson shift-leader, linguist and senior codebreaker
• Victor Masters shift-leader
• Denis Oswald linguist and senior codebreaker
• Peter Hilton codebreaker and mathematician
• Peter Benenson codebreaker
• Peter Edgerley codebreaker
• John Christie codebreaker
• John Thompson codebreaker
• Roy Jenkins codebreaker (later moved on to wheel setter)
• Tom Colvill general Manager

By the end of the War, the Testery had grown to nine cryptanalysts, a team of 24 ATS, a total staff of 118, organised in three shifts working round the clock.

See also

• Testery
• Newmanry
• Tunny
• Bill Tutte

References

1. ^ Roberts, Jerry (2006), "Major Tester's Section", in Copeland, B. Jack, Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 249–259, ISBN 978-0-19-284055-4 

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Name	Roberts, Jerry
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Date of birth	1920
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