Arthur Bonsall

Sir Arthur Wilfred (Bill) Bonsall KCMG CBE (born 25 June 1917) was a British intelligence officer.

Educated at Bishop's Stortford College, Bonsall went on to study modern languages at St Catharine's College, Cambridge ["Burke's Peerage"] before joining the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley ParkJames Bamford, "The Puzzle Palace:A Report on America's Most Secret Agency", Penguin, 1983] . From 1940 Bonsall served in the German Air Section under Josh Cooper, studying the Luftwaffe. In 1942 he helped to create a series of daily reports known as the BMP (from the initials of its three co-creators, Bonsall, Moyes and Prior). They were based primarily on Luftwaffe radio-telephony and low-grade codes and were issued at Secret Pearl level. Later reports included information from Luftwaffe Enigma traffic and were issued at Top Secret Ultra level. They dealt with the operations of the Luftwaffe defensive organisation and assisted the Allied Air Commands to design their tactics. Bonsall stayed on with the organisation, which became GCHQ after the war, and served as its director from December 1973 to 1978. He was knighted in 1977.

He has rarely spoken or written of his work at Bletchley Park though did present a paper in 2007 to a Research Group in Oxford entitled 'Bletchley Park and the RAF Y Service 1939-45'.

References

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
before= Sir Leonard Hooper
title=Director of GCHQ
years= December 1973 - November 1978
after= Sir Brian Tovey |