Hinsley, Francis Harry

Person

Hinsley, Francis Harry

• Hinsley, Harry

1918-1998

Born on 26 November 1918 in Walsall, to Thomas Henry and Emma Hinsley. He was educated at the local elementary school, and then at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall, before winning a scholarship to St John's College to read history. He obtained a First in Part I of the Historical Tripos (1939), but never went on to complete a first or any subsequent degree. After the breakout of the Second World War, Hinsley was recruited into the naval section at the Government Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park. Here, he became the leading expert on decryption and analysis of German wireless traffic and, after the capture of the German Enigma Code machines and materials, played a vital role in supplying the Admiralty with crucial intelligence analysis derived from Admiral Doenitz's signals, which helped to win the battle against U-boats in the Atlantic. In later life he wrote both official and more personal accounts of the work that had been undertaken at Bletchley Park.

At the conclusion of the war Hinsley returned to St John's College, where he had been elected a research fellow in 1944. On 6 April 1946, Hinsley married Hilary Brett Brett-Smith (Goldsmith's reader in English at Oxford 1939-47), with whom he went on to have three children (2 sons, 1 daughter). He became a university lecturer in history (1949-65), tutor (1956-63) reader in the history of international relations (1965-69), and professor of the history of international relations (1969-83). He also served as President (1975-9) and then Master (1979-89) of St John's College, and in the office of University Vice-Chancellor (1981-3). One of his greatest achievements during his time at Cambridge was the establishment of the research school in the history of international relations in the 1960s and 70s. His research and publications, as well as the research and publications of his PhD students changed the way in which both international relations and their history were studied, and the result was an alteration in the intellectual basis of discussion.

Hinsley was made OBE for his work at Bletchley Park in 1946, was awarded an FBA in 1981, and was also knighted in 1985. He was an Honorary Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (1981), and Darwin College, Cambridge (1987), and was awarded an Honorary DLitt from Witwatersrand (1985) and DMilSci from Royal Roads Military College, Canada (1987). He died of lung cancer at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on 16 February 1998.

R. Langhorne, Hinsley, Sir (Francis) Harry (1918-1998), cryptanalyst and historian, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

Hinsley, Prof. Sir (Francis) Harry, Who's Who