Sir Brian Tovey
Sir Brian John Maynard Tovey, born on the 15th April 1926, was the first Director of GCHQ not to have worked at Bletchley Park.
Tovey joined GCHQ in 1950 after National Service with the Royal Navy between 1959 and 1964 he was responsible for Interception planning and requirements in the old S Division, a job which brought him into close contact with the CSO (Composite Signals Organisation) sites dotted around the country, and overseas. This was followed by a three year stint in the Far East and a posting as the senior liaison officer in Melbourne, Australia during the height of the Indonesia Confrontation. He was often to refer to this period as a classic demonstration of the use of signals intelligence as a war-winning weapon.
Back in Cheltenham, working in J Division, he saw first-hand how effective signals intelligence could be in coping with the demands of day to day, hour by hour reporting on the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1963, commenting at the time ‘the nearest approach to what we could be called upon to do if the Warsaw Pact forces ever launched an attack on NATO.’ After this post he finally had a period of renewed direct contact with the CSO stations affairs as Head of Plans and Policy Staff, followed by a move to L Division and then to his first Directorate role, as Director of Communications Security (COMSEC).
He became GCHQ Director on the 19 June 1978 aged 52, succeeding Arthur Bonsall, and served until 1983. Due to the Geoffrey Prime spy case and the upheavals over Trade Unions he had to contend with GCHQ being in the public eye. His tenure took the organisation through the invasion of Afghanistan by the Soviet Union and the Falklands conflict.
After he retired from GCHQ he went on to be a consultant, advising firms like Plessey, and became the founding Chairman of the UK Mind Sports Olympiad (MSO). He died on the 23rd December 2015.