Testery

The Testery was a section at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II, headed by Major Ralph Tester. The Testery employed hand methods to solve the Fish traffic, but later invented the Dragon and Proteus electronic cribbing machines.

The Testery was formed in July 1942 under Major Ralph Tester, who had previously led a small group working on a German hand cipher.Jerry Roberts, "Major Tester's Section", p. 250 from pp. 249-259 in B. Jack Copeland, ed., "Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers", Oxford University Press, 2006]

Max Newman was originally in the Testery until the Newmanry section was created on 1 February 1943 to develop and employ machine methods for the Fish traffic.

By May 1945, the Testery had grown to 118 personnel. [Paul Gannon. "Colussus: Bletchley Park's Greatest Secret". Atlantic Press, London. 2006]

List of senior executives and codebreakers in the Testery

* Ralph Tester linguists and head of Testery
* Jerry Roberts shift-leader, linguists and senior codebreaker
* Peter Ericsson shift-leader, linguists and senior codebreaker
* Victor Masters shift-leader and senior codebreaker
* Denis Oswald linguists and senior codebreaker
* Peter Hilton codebreaker
* Peter Benenson codebreaker
* Peter Edgerley codebreaker
* John Christie codebreaker
* John Thompson codebreaker
* Roy Jenkins codebreaker
* Tom Colvill general Manager

References