Francis Lyall "Frank" Birch, (5 December 1889 – 14 February 1956) was a British cryptographer and actor. He worked at Bletchley Park from 1939 to 1945 during World War II. He headed the German navy sub-section first and later the navy section. He and his staff analyzed and distributed to the Royal Navy the decoded messages of the navies of the Axis powers, especially the Kriegsmarine of Nazi Germany. The secretive work of Birch and many others at Bletchley Park helped the British overcome the most dangerous threat to their survival in 1941 and 1942, the War in the Atlantic.
Contents
Early life
Frank Birch was born in London on 5 December 1889, the third son of John Arden Birch, a banker, and Charlotte Stopford Birth. He as educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge. He studied history and modern languages and graduated in 1912 with honors in both subjects. During World War I he initially served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve as a lieutenant and took part in the Dardanelles campaign as an interpreter. Fluent in German, in 1916 the Admiralty assigned him to decrypt and interpret German naval communications. He worked in Room 40, the Admiralty's cryptanalysis section. After the war, Birch was a fellow at Cambridge from 1916 to 1934 and a lecturer at Cambridge from 1921 to 1928. Afterwards he became an actor, a theater producer, and an advisor to the Government Code and Cypher School. Birch appeared in many plays and movies in the late 1920s and 1930s. He was especially noted for his portrayal of Widow Twankey.