Figure 1.--Strachey at about 5 years of age in 1879. We are not sure if he us wearing a jacketed dress or a kilt suit. Note the knive pleats and how mother has carefully arranged the skirt for best affect. Source: National Portrait Gallery, London.

Oliver Strachey was educated at Eton and Oxford. He is associated with British intelligence and cryptology during both World Wars. He spent much of his life working for British Intelligence as a Cryptographer. He began this work during World War I. He served in British Military (Army) Intelligence (MI1). Between the wars he worked in the Government Code and Cypher School and Hugh Foss cracked an early Japanese Naval Code--the Japanese naval attaché machine cipher. They achieved this without speaking Japanese. The Americans and British at the time of Pearl Harbor were working on an updated Japanese Naval Code, but had not yet cracked it. Strachey worked at Bletchley Park where the German Enigma Code was broken. Strachley headed the section deciphering various messages on the Abwehr network which used turned German agents--the Double Cross system. The first decrypt was achieved (April 14, 1940). The decrypts were first codenamed Pear. They became known as ISOS (Illicit/Intelligence Services Oliver Strachey). Strachey was replaced as ISOS head by Denys Page (early 1942).

Created: 8:38 PM 2/21/2011
Last updated: 8:38 PM 2/21/2011