Jerry Roberts

Captain Raymond C. "Jerry" Roberts MBE (18 November 1920 – 25 March 2014) was a British wartime codebreaker and businessman. During the Second World War, Roberts worked at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park from 1941 to 1945. He was a leading codebreaker and linguist, who worked on the Lorenz cipher system – Hitler's most top-level code.

Jerry Roberts was born in Wembley, London. His father Herbert, had trained as a pharmacist, but worked for Lloyds Bank head office in the City for the rest of his 40-year career, since coming to London from Wales in 1915. His mother, Leticia, was a pianist and an organist who played in the local chapel. He was educated at Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith in London 1933–39 and University College London 1939–41. He gained a degree in German and French. recommended the twenty-year-old Roberts as a German linguist to the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park where he was interviewed and accepted by Colonel John Tiltman as a codebreaker and linguist. For the first year, the messages that were broken by hand amounted to 1.5 million pieces. The Newmanry, which became active in July 1943, 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 Lorenz traffic.

Tens of thousands of Lorenz messages were intercepted by the British and broken at Bletchley Park by Roberts and his fellow code-breakers in the Testery. These messages contained much vital insight into top-level German thinking and planning. Tunny provided vital information that changed the course of the war in Europe and saved tens of millions of lives at critical junctures – such as the Battle of Kursk in the Soviet Union, and D-Day. General Dwight Eisenhower (later the U.S President 1953–61) said after the war "Bletchley decrypts shortened the war by at least 2 years". Roberts was featured in a BBC Timewatch Special titled Code-Breakers: Bletchley Park's Lost Heroes, first broadcast on BBC Two on 25 October 2011. In 2013, he received an MBE New Years Honours List and awarded a University College London Honorary Fellowship. The same year, he was also honoured with an investiture stamp, which is available through Bletchley Park Post Office.

Roberts accepted all of these accolades as acknowledgment not of his own accomplishments, but of the work of his teammates at Bletchley Park, most of whom died unrecognised, before Tunny was declassified.

Roberts' autobiography was published in March 2017, titled Lorenz: Breaking Hitler's top secret code at Bletchley-Park.