Joe Baker-Cresswell

Captain Addison Joe Baker-Cresswell DSO (2 February 1901 – 4 March 1997) was a Royal Navy officer, aide-de-camp to King George VI and High Sheriff of Northumberland. He is noted prominently for his role as the commanding officer of HMS Bulldog during the capture of U-110, from which an intact Enigma cipher machine was seized.

Background and early life

Baker-Cresswell was born in Mayfair, London, the younger of the two sons of Major Addison Francis Baker-Cresswell (1874–1921), a Grenadier Guards officer and a member of a landowning family from Northumberland, and his wife Idonea Fitzherbert Widdrington (1869–1967). The elder brother, John Baker-Cresswell (1899–1920), was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy who was drowned in an accident at Portsmouth.

Consequently, he sent a search party, under Sub-Lt. David Balme to board U-110 and 'mooch around'. Balme and party stripped the submarine of all its equipment, including U-110′s Enigma cipher machine, code settings for high-security traffic, and code book for U-boat short-signal reports. Baker-Cresswell took U-110 in tow, but she sank within hours.

Baker-Cresswell was awarded the DSO and promoted captain. Balme received the Distinguished Service Cross. King George VI told them the capture of the U-110 cipher material had been "the most important single event in the whole war at sea".