Richard Gambier-Parry

Brigadier Sir Richard Gambier-Parry, (20 January 1894 – 19 June 1965) was a British military officer who served in both the army and the air force during World War I. He remained in military service post-war, but then entered into civilian life for more than a decade. In 1938, he was recruited by the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (also known as MI6). Gambier-Parry led the Communications Section (Section VIII) of the SIS during World War II, and assembled a clandestine wireless network that connected the United Kingdom with SIS agents in many countries, as well as helping to create the SIS resistance network in Britain. During the war, he was also recruited by the Director of British Naval Intelligence to serve as the radio consultant for Operation Tracer in Gibraltar. Post-war, he ran a network of secret listening stations.

Early life

Richard Gambier-Parry, son of architect Sidney Gambier-Parry (1859 – 1948) and his wife Grace née Denman, was born on 20 January 1894 at Highnam Court (pictured at left), Highnam, Gloucestershire, England. He was the grandson of artist, art collector, and philanthropist Thomas Gambier-Parry (1816 – 1888). Other notable relatives included his uncles, composer Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry (1848 – 1918) and Major Ernest Gambier-Parry (1853 – 1936). His brother was Major General Michael Denman Gambier-Parry (1891 – 1976).

Following Gambier-Parry's education at Eton College, he spent some time in the United States. With the onset of the First World War, he joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant (on probation) on 15 August 1914. He was promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to Lieutenant on 20 March 1916, which was later antedated to 3 March 1916. He served with distinction in France and Belgium and was wounded on three occasions. Also mentioned in despatches twice, Gambier-Parry then joined the Royal Flying Corps. On 29 August 1918, he was granted a temporary commission as Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force, with seniority from 1 April 1918. On 1 May 1919, the Lieutenant was appointed Staff Officer, 3rd Class. Effective 1 August 1919, he was re-seconded for two years as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force. Effective 1 August 1921, the Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers was re-seconded as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force for a period of two years. On 1 August 1925, the Captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers relinquished his temporary commission as Flight Lieutenant upon return to Army duty.

Gambier-Parry married widow Diana Williams Andrews née Norrington on 26 September 1919. He was employed with the British Broadcasting Corporation in its public relations department from 1926 to 1931. However, Gambier-Parry and his first wife divorced, and he married Phyllis Gomm on 7 November 1931. He became interested in radio and worked for radio manufacturer Philco. He was promoted to Colonel in 1939.

Whaddon Hall in Whaddon, Buckinghamshire was the headquarters of Section VIII, the Communications Section of MI6. The radio station which was originally located in the tower of the mansion of Bletchley Park (pictured), in Bletchley, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, bore the name Station X. However, with a clearly visible aerial, it could not be kept secret. Instead, it was disassembled and relocated to Whaddon Hall. That facility served in a number of capacities, the most critical the sending of Ultra intelligence from Bletchley Park to officers in the field. At the time that France fell to the Axis powers in June 1940, only a small number of SIS agents were in communication with Whaddon Hall. Early in the war, until about 1941, inexperienced SIS agents on the European continent spent too much time on the air, and jeopardised their security. However, by 1943, Gambier-Parry and his staff had engineered a substantial improvement in clandestine wireless communication. Historian Hugh Trevor-Roper served with the Radio Security Service (part of the Secret Intelligence Service after May 1941) and could not help liking the head of Section VIII. "In the world of neurotic policemen and timid placemen who rule the secret service, he moves like Falstaff, or some figure from Balzac, if not Rabelais."

Involvement in Operation Tracer

Map of Operation Tracer'sStay Behind Cave, lower level. North is to the left. Map of Operation Tracer'sStay Behind Cave, upper level. North is to the left. In 1941, Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey, the Director of British Naval Intelligence, chose Colonel Gambier-Parry as his radio consultant for Operation Tracer, a highly classified, military operation in which a team sealed in a clandestine observation post was to monitor enemy vessels should Gibraltar fall to the Axis Powers. The team of six volunteers included three signalmen who would radio information back to the Admiralty. The covert complex (diagrams pictured left and right) was excavated in the existing tunnel system of Lord Airey's Shelter in the Rock of Gibraltar. A rod aerial measuring 18 feet (5.5 m) in length extended up the staircase in a tube from the radio room and was inserted through the east observation aperture prior to transmission and was withdrawn when transmission was completed.

In January 1942, Gambier-Parry began trials of the radio communications for Operation Tracer, using equipment that he already had at Gibraltar, and sending one of his staff to conduct trials in the excavated radio room. By 30 April 1942, the three signalmen for the mission had been selected. Their training began in May 1942, during which the wireless communications in which they engaged remained undetected by the Radio Security Service. By August of that year, the full Operation Tracer team was in position in Gibraltar. However, a year later, in August 1943, the team was disbanded when the Director of Naval Intelligence decided that he did not need the operation to go into commission. He ran a network of secret listening stations after the war, On 11 April 1949, Brigadier Gambier-Parry, with service number 9669, was appointed honorary Colonel in the Royal Corps of Signals. He retired in 1955. Gambier-Parry and his wife had a home in Malta, where he founded a successful casino. In England, he was active in the community during his retirement, serving as president of the Bletchley Conservative Club and president of the Milton Keynes Cricket Club. In addition, he was a regular speaker at the yearly Bletchley Police dinner.

In 1974, information about Bletchley Park started to become declassified and was made known to the British public.