Harry Hinsley facts for kids

Photograph of British codebreakers Harry Hinsley, Sir Edward Travis, and John Tiltman

Sir Francis Harry Hinsley (26 November 1918 – 16 February 1998) was a British historian and intelligence officer. He was also known as Harry Hinsley.

During the Second World War, he worked at Bletchley Park. This was a top-secret place where codebreakers worked to understand enemy messages. After the war, he wrote many books about international relations and how British Intelligence worked during the war.

Early Life and Education

Harry Hinsley grew up in Walsall, England. His father worked for a local co-op, and his mother was a school caretaker.

He went to Queen Mary's Grammar School in Walsall. In 1937, he won a scholarship to study history at St. John's College, which is part of the University of Cambridge. He did very well in his history studies.

A Close Call in Germany

In August 1939, just before the war started, Harry visited his girlfriend in Koblenz, Germany. The police made him report to the station every day.

However, after Germany and the Soviet Union signed a special agreement (the German-Soviet Pact), the police stopped this rule. A week later, he was told to leave Germany immediately.

He managed to cross the border into France. German guards took all his German money, leaving him with nothing. He had to sleep on a park bench in France. Harry then hitch-hiked to Switzerland and returned to the United Kingdom. He arrived just before Britain declared war on Germany.

Joining Bletchley Park

In October 1939, while still at Cambridge, Harry was asked to meet Alastair Denniston. He was the head of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). Harry was then recruited to work at Bletchley Park in a section called "Hut 4." He left his university degree without finishing it to help with the war effort.

Work at Bletchley Park

At Bletchley Park, Harry Hinsley focused on studying German messages. This was called "traffic analysis." He looked at things like call signs, radio frequencies, and when messages were sent.

From this information, he could figure out a lot about the German navy (the Kriegsmarine). He learned how their communication networks were set up and even how the navy itself was organized.

Capturing Enigma Machines

Harry Hinsley helped start a plan to capture Enigma machines and their secret codes from German weather ships. These ships, like the Lauenburg, stayed in one place for a long time.

He realized they would carry code books for future months. These books would likely be in a locked safe and might be missed if the crew tried to throw secret items overboard. This idea turned out to be correct. Capturing these items helped Bletchley Park to keep breaking German Naval Enigma codes.

Working with the US Navy

In late 1943, Harry Hinsley went to Washington to work with the US Navy. In January 1944, they agreed to share information about breaking Japanese Naval signals. This cooperation was very important.

After the War

Towards the end of the war, Harry Hinsley was an important helper to Edward Travis, the chief of Bletchley Park. He was part of a group that suggested creating a single intelligence agency after the war. This agency would combine both code-breaking and human intelligence. However, the opposite happened, and GC&CS became GCHQ.

On 6 April 1946, Harry married Hilary Brett-Smith. She had also worked at Bletchley Park in "Hut 8." After the war, they moved to Cambridge. Harry became a Fellow at St. John's College.

Harry Hinsley received the OBE award in 1946. He was made a knight in 1985, which means he was called "Sir Harry Hinsley." He passed away in 1998 and was cremated in Cambridge.

Historian and Author

After the war, Harry Hinsley returned to St John's College. He taught history there. In 1969, he became a professor of the history of International Relations.

From 1979 to 1989, he was the Master of St John's College. He also served as the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1981 to 1983. In 1981, he was made an honorary fellow of Trinity College Dublin.

Key Publications

In 1962, Hinsley published a book called Power and the Pursuit of Peace. This book is important for studying early ideas about how countries should get along.

He also edited a multi-volume official history called British Intelligence in the Second World War. In this work, he suggested that breaking the Enigma code helped the Allies win the war one to four years faster. However, he believed it did not completely change the war's final outcome.

Some people, like Marian Rejewski and Gordon Welchman, criticized his early writings. They pointed out some mistakes in his accounts of how the Enigma code was first broken. Later, a corrected version of the Polish, French, and British contributions was added to Volume 3, Part 2 of his work.

The following volumes of British Intelligence in the Second World War were edited by Hinsley:

• Volume 1: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. F. G. Ransome and R. C. Knight, (1979, HMSO) ISBN: 0-11-630933-4
• Volume 2: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. F. G. Ransome and R. C. Knight, (1981, HMSO) ISBN: 0-11-630934-2
• Volume 3, Part 1: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. F. G. Ransome and R. C. Knight, (1984, HMSO) ISBN: 0-11-630935-0
• Volume 3, Part 2: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations, F. H. Hinsley with E. E. Thomas, C. A. G. Simkins, and C. F. G. Ransom, (1988, HMSO) ISBN: 0-11-630940-7
  • Includes Bibliography (pages 961–974), and The Polish, French and British Contributions to the Breaking of the Enigma; a Revised Account (Appendix 30, pages 945–959).
• Volume 4: Security and Counter-Intelligence, F. H. Hinsley and C. A. G. Simkins, (1990, HMSO) ISBN: 0-11-630952-0
• Abridged Version, F. H. Hinsley, (1993, HMSO) ISBN: 0-11-630956-3 (& 1993, Cambridge University Press) ISBN: 0-521-44304-0

Harry Hinsley also helped edit Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park with Alan Stripp. This book shares personal stories from people who worked at Bletchley Park.

Every year, a special talk called the Hinsley Memorial Lecture is held at St John's College. It focuses on international relations and honors Harry Hinsley's memory.

A blue plaque marks his birthplace in Walsall, remembering his contributions.