   general sir george scovell (1774&ndash;1861) was a member of the quartermaster's staff of the british army in iberia during the peninsular war. ==military career== scovell was commissioned as cornet and adjutant in the 4th queen's own dragoons in 1798.george scovell at oxford dictionary of national biography he is most remembered for the crucial role he played in breaking the codes of the french forces during that war, their grande chiffre. a gifted linguist, he was put in charge of a motley crew of various nationalities recruited for their local knowledge and language skills and called the army guides. they developed a system for intercepting and deciphering french communiquÃ©s. in the spring of 1811, the french began using a code based on a combination of 150 numbers known as the army of portugal code. scovell cracked the code within two days. at the end of 1811, a new code called the great paris code was sent to all french army officers. it was based on 1400 numbers and derived from a mid-eighteenth century diplomatic code (grande chiffre) which added meaningless figures to the end of letters. by december 1812, when a letter from joseph bonaparte to napoleon was intercepted, scovell could decipher enough of it to read joseph's explicit account of french operations and plans. the information gained proved vital to wellington's victory over the french at vittoria on 21 june 1813. in 1813 scovell was given the task of raising, then commanding, the staff corps of cavalry, also known as the staff dragoons. this formation, of four troops equipped as light dragoons (though in red uniforms), was the f
1774_births 1861_deaths 4th_Queen\'s_Own_Hussars_officers British_Army_generals British_Army_personnel_of_the_Napoleonic_Wars Governors_of_the_Royal_Military_College,_Sandhurst Knights_Grand_Cross_of_the_Order_of_the_Bath Pre-computer_cryptographers Recipients_of_the_Order_of_St._Vladimir Recipients_of_the_Waterloo_Medal