Jerry Roberts
Encyclopedia
Captain Jerry 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.
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
.
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.
During World War II, his tutor, Prof. Leonard Willoughby recommended him to Army Intelligence in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he joined Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). He was a senior cryptanalyst and linguist, and worked at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
from September 1941 to May 1945, first working on German Military Police Double Playfair ciphers
Two-square cipher
The Two-square cipher, also called double Playfair, is a manual symmetric encryption technique. It was developed to ease the cumbersome nature of the large encryption/decryption matrix used in the four-square cipher while still being slightly stronger than the Playfair cipher.The technique...
. He was one of four founder members of the 'Testery
Testery
The Testery was a section at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II. It was set up in July 1942 under Major Ralph Tester to achieve Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. The three original founding members, cryptographers, and linguists were Captain Jerry Roberts,...
' in July 1942 when it was set up to work on the breaking of Tunny
Tunny
-Fish:* an alternative name for the tuna fish* Common tunny another name for the Northern bluefin tuna* Little tunny, the common name for Euthynnus alletteratus, a species of tuna-Fiction:* a character in the musical American Idiot...
the German top-level cipher system. He was made shift leader, worked on daily breaking of Tunny until the end of the war.
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
GfK NOP
GfK NOP is a leading market research agency based in London, providing business insight through quantitative and qualitative research.- History :...
(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
Latymer Upper School
Latymer Upper School, founded by Edward Latymer in 1624, is a selective independent school in Hammersmith, West London, England, lying between King Street and the Thames. It is a day school for 1,130 pupils – boys and girls aged 11–18; there is also the Latymer Preparatory School for boys and girls...
, Hammersmith in London 1933-39. He then went on to University College London
University College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of 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
Ralph Tester
Ralph P. Tester was an administrator at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II. He founded and supervised a section named the Testery for breaking TUNNY .-Background:...
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
Newmanry
The Newmanry was a section at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II. Its job was to develop and employ machine methods in Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. The Newmanry was named after its founder and head, Max Newman...
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
Cipher
In cryptography, a cipher is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption — a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is encipherment. In non-technical usage, a “cipher” is the same thing as a “code”; however, the concepts...
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
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
. 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
British Gas plc
British Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
, Reebok
Reebok
Reebok International Limited, a subsidiary of the German sportswear company Adidas since 2005, is a producer of Athletic shoes, apparel, and accessories. The name comes from the Afrikaans spelling of rhebok, a type of African antelope or gazelle...
trainers
Athletic shoe
Athletic shoe is a generic name for the footwear primarily designed for sports or other forms of physical exercise but in recent years has come to be used for casual everyday activities....
, DuPont
DuPont
E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company , commonly referred to as DuPont, is an American chemical company that was founded in July 1802 as a gunpowder mill by Eleuthère Irénée du Pont. DuPont was the world's third largest chemical company based on market capitalization and ninth based on revenue in 2009...
(Teflon, Lycra etc.), American Airlines
American Airlines
American Airlines, Inc. is the world's fourth-largest airline in passenger miles transported and operating revenues. American Airlines is a subsidiary of the AMR Corporation and is headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas adjacent to its largest hub at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport...
, Chrysler
Chrysler
Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
cars, Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn
Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...
hotels, and many others. In 1993, he sold both of his companies to GfK NOP
GfK NOP
GfK NOP is a leading market research agency based in London, providing business insight through quantitative and qualitative research.- History :...
.
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
Testery
The Testery was a section at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II. It was set up in July 1942 under Major Ralph Tester to achieve Cryptanalysis of the Lorenz cipher. The three original founding members, cryptographers, and linguists were Captain Jerry Roberts,...
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
Tommy Flowers
Thomas "Tommy" Harold Flowers, MBE was an English engineer. During World War II, Flowers designed Colossus, the world's first programmable electronic computer, to help solve encrypted German messages.-Early life:...
; and Alan Turing
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...
, 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
Timewatch
Timewatch is a long-running British television series showing documentaries on historical subjects, spanning all human history. It was first broadcast on 29th September 1982 and is produced by the BBC, the Timewatch brandname is used as a banner title in the UK, but many of the individual...
Special titled Code-Breakers: Bletchley Park's Lost Heroes; first broadcast on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
on 25th October 2011, and repeated on 29th October on BBC Two
BBC Two
BBC Two is the second television channel operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom. It covers a wide range of subject matter, but tending towards more 'highbrow' programmes than the more mainstream and popular BBC One. Like the BBC's other domestic TV and radio...
.
List of senior executives and codebreakers on Tunny in the Testery
- Ralph TesterRalph TesterRalph P. Tester was an administrator at Bletchley Park, the British codebreaking station during World War II. He founded and supervised a section named the Testery for breaking TUNNY .-Background:...
linguist and head of Testery - Jerry RobertsJerry RobertsCaptain Jerry 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....
shift-leader, linguist and senior codebreaker - Peter Ericsson shift-leader, linguist and senior codebreaker
- Victor Masters shift-leader
- Denis OswaldDenis OswaldDenis Oswald is a Swiss rower and sports official. He competed in the 1968 Summer Olympics, in the 1972 Summer Olympics, and in the 1976 Summer Olympics....
linguist and senior codebreaker - Peter HiltonPeter HiltonPeter John Hilton was a British mathematician, noted for his contributions to homotopy theory and for code-breaking during the Second World War.-Life:Hilton was born in London, and educated at St Paul's School...
codebreaker and mathematician - Peter BenensonPeter BenensonPeter Benenson was an English lawyer and the founder of human rights group Amnesty International . In 2001, Benenson received the Pride of Britain Award for Lifetime Achievement.-Biography:...
codebreaker - Peter Edgerley codebreaker
- John ChristieJohn ChristieJohn Christie may refer to:*John Christie , English footballer*John Christie , author, ski historian, Member Maine Ski Hall of Fame*John Christie , opera festival founder...
codebreaker - John ThompsonJohn Thompson-Academics:* Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson , English archeologist and Mayan scholar* John G. Thompson , mathematician* John Thompson , professor at Cambridge...
codebreaker - Roy JenkinsRoy JenkinsRoy Harris Jenkins, Baron Jenkins of Hillhead OM, PC was a British politician.The son of a Welsh coal miner who later became a union official and Labour MP, Roy Jenkins served with distinction in World War II. Elected to Parliament as a Labour member in 1948, he served in several major posts in...
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.