Frank Birch

Born on the 5th December 1889 Birch was educated at Eton College and at the University of Cambridge.

During the First World War Birch served as an Able Seaman in the Channel, Atlantic and the Dardanelles until 1916, when he was recruited for Room 40 to work on German Naval cipher systems. In 1920, he completed a comprehensive internal history entitled, 'A Contribution to the History of German Naval Warfare 1914-1918' with his colleague W E F Clarke.

Birch was a Fellow of King's College Cambridge from 1916 to 1934, and a history lecturer from 1921 to 1928 when he resigned to become a theatre producer and actor. He was described as ‘a many-sided human being - a rather dull historian, an acceptable drinking companion, a mysterious private personality, a brilliant talker and a born actor’ (Penelope Fitzgerald, The Knox Brothers (1977). All that is remembered of his career on the boards is that his was the definitive Widow Twankey in the pantomime Aladdin.

Birch rejoined GC&CS in September 1939, as head of a German Naval subsection at Bletchley Park. In 1941, Birch succeeded Clarke as Head of the GC&CS Naval Section. Birch travelled to Washington with Edward Travis to negotiate the first major wartime SIGINT accord with the United States – which was known as the Holden Agreement of October 1942. The Agreement provided for 'full collaboration' between GC&CS and its US Navy counterpart, OP-20-G. After the war ended Birch became head of the Historical Section in GCHQ and died in post on the 14th February 1956. He was appointed OBE in 1919 and CMG in 1946.