A. J. Alan

Leslie Harrison Lambert (11 November 1883 – 13 December 1941), known in public as A. J. Alan, was an English magician, intelligence officer, short story writer and radio broadcaster. At the beginning of World War II he worked in naval intelligence at Bletchley Park.

Life and career Lambert, son of Thomas Harrison Lambert and his wife Kate, was born in Nottingham and went to Rugby School before training to be a surveyor. He then learned to be a magician and became a successful member of The Magic Circle, performing especially at society events.

Lambert became a radio ham and at the start of World War I he volunteered to work at a coastguard station in Norfolk which was a centre for intercepting German radio transmissions. By November 1914 he was employed by the Admiralty at Naval Intelligence Room 40 although even until after his death official records said he had been working at the Foreign Office since 1909. At Bletchley Park he was in Hut 8 and he was known to R V Jones who said that "in contrast to his outrageously unconventional stories" that he led his life on "a monotonously regular timetable".

Lambert married but had no children. He lived at Holland Park, London and had a second home at Potter Heigham for sailing his boat on the Norfolk Broads. He was an amateur radio operator using call sign G2ST and an authority on food and wine. He always wore a dinner jacket and Stuart Hibberd described him as "a neat figure in perfectly cut evening dress, with eye glass and a slim black brief case".

It was known that "A. J. Alan" was not his true name but only once, in 1933, was his identity guessed when an old school friend, by then living in Jamaica, recognised his voice. Many of his stories were subsequently printed in newspapers and magazines and were included in anthologies of short stories. Three collections of his stories have been published.

From 1937 his health was not good so he reduced his radio work and made his last broadcast on 21 March 1940.

Publications

Books of stories Good Evening, Everyone!, Hutchinson (1928) A.J. Alan's Second Book, Hutchinson (1933) The Best of A.J. Alan (edited by Kenelm Foss), Richards Press (1954)

Recordings Percy the Prawn, Regal Zonophone MR1118 (1933) Hilarion the Fish / The Origin of the Horse Marines, Regal Zonophone MR991 (1933)