 john chadwick (21 may 1920 &ndash; 24 november 1998) was an english linguist and classical scholar who, with alice kober and michael ventris, was most notable for the decipherment of linear b. ==early life and education== he was born in east sheen, richmond-upon-thames, and educated at st paul's school and corpus christi college, cambridge, and he served as an officer in the royal navy's special branch during the second world war."john chadwick, 1920-1998", the guardian, 1998-12-03, page 22. in may 1942 he was transferred to intelligence duties at the naval base hms nile in alexandria, egypt, and worked on breaking lower-level italian naval codes."life of john chadwick : 1920 - 1998 : classical philologist, lexicographer and co-decipherer of linear b", faculty of classics, cambridge university he was working on italian naval codes as an able seaman, but in september 1942 was suddenly (and immediately) promoted to temporary sub-lieutenant as the material was classed as âofficers onlyâ. his superior commander murray had exploded when told that chadwick would need six months training in england before promotion. chadwick deduced from some r/t traffic meant to be handled at bletchley park that a british submarine had been sunk near taranto. john chadwick a biographical fragment; 1942-5 in action this day edited by michael smith and ralph erskine (2001, bantam press, london) pp 110-126 isbn 0593 049101 in 1944 he was transferred to bletchley park (âstation xâ), learned japanese, and worked on reading the encoded messages sent by the japanese naval representatives in stockholm and berlin. after the end of the war in 1945, he returned to his studies at cambridge, graduating with first class honours in classics part ii, with a distinction in his special subject, linguistics. while studying at corpus christi college, he attempted, with some of his fellow students, to use cryptographic methods to decipher the âminoan linear script bâ. they were already aware at the time of the work of michael ventris. they stopped working actively on the problem owing to a lack of published data from inscriptions. in 1950 he published his first scholarly work, an edition of the medical works of hippocrates, co-authored with his cousin, william neville mann, a distinguished physician."william neville mann", munk's roll, royal college of physicians after finishing his degree, he joined the staff of the oxford latin dictionary before beginning a classics lectureship 
1920_births 1998_deaths Alumni_of_Corpus_Christi_College,_Cambridge Classical_philologists English_archaeologists English_classical_scholars English_philologists Fellows_of_the_British_Academy Hellenic_epigraphers Linguists_from_England Members_of_the_University_of_Cambridge_faculty_of_classics People_associated_with_Bletchley_Park People_educated_at_St_Paul\'s_School,_London People_from_East_Sheen Recipients_of_the_Austrian_Decoration_for_Science_and_Art Scholars_of_Mycenaean_Greek