Arthur Bonsall

June 25, 1917 (age 97)

Educated at Bishop"s Stortford College, Bonsall went on to study modern languages at Street Catharine"s College, Cambridge before joining the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. 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. After retirement he served for a period as a tax commissioner. In later retirement he was concerned to preserve a more accurate record of the non-Enigma side of Bletchley Park, especially the work of the German Air Section. The first outcome was a talk given to a Cheltenham Probus club, later developed into a privately printed family memoir entitled "Another Bit of Bletchley". In 2007 he presented a paper to a research group in Oxford on Bletchley Park and the Royal Air Force Y Service, some recollections. A more formal version of "Another Bit of Bletchley" was published as northern 17 in the Bletchley Park Trust Report series. This was followed in 2011 by another report, northern 21 in the same series, entitled "An Uphill Struggle", dealing with the internal battle to overcome Air Ministry failure to understand the value to Royal Air Force Commands of tactically derived signals intelligence. He collaborated closely with Wg Cdr John Stubbington in the latter"s 2012 account of BMP reports by the German Air Section. In September 2013, he gave an interview about his career to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Bonsall was born in Middlesbrough on 25 June 1917, the eldest son of Wilfred C Bonsall and Sarah Frank.

Arthur Bonsall

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Education

Street Catharine"s College.

Career

Educated at Bishop"s Stortford College, Bonsall went on to study modern languages at Street Catharine"s College, Cambridge before joining the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. 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.

After retirement he served for a period as a tax commissioner.

In later retirement he was concerned to preserve a more accurate record of the non-Enigma side of Bletchley Park, especially the work of the German Air Section. The first outcome was a talk given to a Cheltenham Probus club, later developed into a privately printed family memoir entitled "Another Bit of Bletchley". In 2007 he presented a paper to a research group in Oxford on Bletchley Park and the Royal Air Force Y Service, some recollections.

A more formal version of "Another Bit of Bletchley" was published as northern

17 in the Bletchley Park Trust Report series. This was followed in 2011 by another report, northern

21 in the same series, entitled "An Uphill Struggle", dealing with the internal battle to overcome Air Ministry failure to understand the value to Royal Air Force Commands of tactically derived signals intelligence. He collaborated closely with Wg Cdr John Stubbington in the latter"s 2012 account of BMP reports by the German Air Section.

In September 2013, he gave an interview about his career to the British Broadcasting Corporation. Bonsall was born in Middlesbrough on 25 June 1917, the eldest son of Wilfred C Bonsall and Sarah Frank.

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Arthur Bonsall

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Education

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Commander of the Order of the British Empire; Knight Commander of the Order of Street Michael and Street George