Richard Gambier - Parry Brigadier Sir Richard Gambier - Parry , KCMG ( 20 January 1894 – 19 June 1965 ) was a British military officer who served in both the army and the air force during World War I . He remained in military service post - war , but then entered into civilian life for more than a decade . In 1938 , he was recruited by the head of the Secret Intelligence Service ( also known as MI6 ) . Gambier - Parry led the Communications Section ( Section VIII ) of the SIS during World War II , and assembled a clandestine wireless network that connected the United Kingdom with SIS agents in many countries . During the war , he was also recruited by the Director of British Naval Intelligence to serve as the radio consultant for Operation Tracer in Gibraltar . Post - war , he ran a network of secret listening stations . Early life . Richard Gambier - Parry , son of architect Sidney Gambier - Parry ( 1859 – 1948 ) and his wife Grace née Denman , was born on 20 January 1894 at Highnam Court " ( pictured at left ) " , Highnam , Gloucestershire , England . He was the grandson of artist , art collector , and philanthropist Thomas Gambier - Parry ( 1816 – 1888 ) . Other notable relatives included his uncles , composer Sir Charles Hubert Hastings Parry ( 1848 – 1918 ) and Major Ernest Gambier - Parry ( 1853 – 1936 ) . His brother was Major General Michael Denman Gambier - Parry ( 1891 – 1976 ) . Following Gambier - Parry ' s education at Eton College , he spent some time in the United States . With the onset of the First World War , he joined the Royal Welsh Fusiliers . He was appointed to the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Welsh Fusiliers on 9 August 1914 , and was commissioned as Second Lieutenant ( on probation ) on 15 August 1914 . He was promoted from 2nd Lieutenant to Lieutenant on 20 March 1916 , which was later antedated to 3 March 1916 . He served with distinction in France and Belgium and was wounded on three occasions . Also mentioned in despatches twice , Gambier - Parry then joined the Royal Flying Corps . On 29 August 1918 , he was granted a temporary commission as Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force , with seniority from 1 April 1918 . On 1 May 1919 , the Lieutenant was appointed Staff Officer , 3rd Class . Effective 1 August 1919 , he was re - seconded for two years as a Flying Officer in the Royal Air Force . Effective 1 August 1921 , the Lieutenant in the Royal Welch Fusiliers was re - seconded as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force for a period of two years . On 1 August 1925 , the Captain in the Royal Welch Fusiliers relinquished his temporary commission as Flight Lieutenant upon return to Army duty . Gambier - Parry married widow Diana Williams Andrews née Norrington on 26 September 1919 . He was employed with the British Broadcasting Corporation in its public relations department from 1926 to 1931 . However , Gambier - Parry and his first wife divorced , and he married Phyllis Gomm on 7 November 1931 . He became interested in radio and worked for radio manufacturer Philco . Second World War . In April 1938 , prior to the onset of the Second World War , Gambier - Parry was recruited by Admiral Sir Hugh Sinclair for the Secret Intelligence Service ( SIS ) . Sinclair , previously the Director of British Naval Intelligence , had succeeded Sir Mansfield Smith - Cumming as head of the SIS , also known as MI6 . The Radio Section was established in 1938 upon Gambier - Parry ' s appointment ; he was to oversee a thorough modernisation of the radio capability of the Secret Intelligence Service . The Radio Section was combined in late 1938 or early 1939 with the Codes ( or Cipher ) Section to create the Communications Section , also referred to as Section VIII . As the head of Section VIII , Gambier - Parry , the Controller Special Communications ( CSC ) , was charged with assembling a covert wireless network that would connect the UK with their stations on the European Continent . He was promoted to Colonel in 1939 . Prior to Gambier - Parry ' s appointment to reform communications , SIS agents had depended upon coded telegrams relayed by cable . Before the onset of war in 1939 , he attempted to establish the necessary communications facilities for the Secret Intelligence Service . One wireless facility was set up at Woldingham , Surrey , England . Covert transceivers were designed and built at MI6 workshops in Barnes , London . In addition , the Foreign Office agreed to have emergency transceivers , staffed by MI6 agents , sent to missions on the continent . However , Gambier - Parry ' s efforts were frustrated by the unwillingness of some heads of overseas missions to take them , based on the belief that their use was contrary to the Vienna Convention . The hesitance on the part of the Secret Intelligence Service to use radio communication resulted in a substantial lack of experience in clandestine wireless communication at the outbreak of war in 1939 . Whaddon Hall in Whaddon , Buckinghamshire was the headquarters of Section VIII , the Communications Section of MI6 . The radio station which was originally located in the tower of the mansion of Bletchley Park " ( pictured ) " , in Bletchley , Milton Keynes , Buckinghamshire , bore the name Station X . However , with a clearly visible aerial , it could not be kept secret . Instead , it was disassembled and relocated to Whaddon Hall . That facility served in a number of capacities , the most critical the sending of Ultra intelligence from Bletchley Park to officers in the field . The term Ultra was used to convey the status of the intelligence , which was considered to be above Top Secret . It consisted of information that was gathered by breaking encrypted radio communications . At the time that France fell to the Axis Powers in June 1940 , only a small number of SIS agents were in communication with Whaddon Hall . Early in the war , until about 1941 , inexperienced SIS agents on the European continent spent too much time on the air , and jeopardised their security . However , by 1943 , Gambier - Parry and his staff had engineered a substantial improvement in clandestine wireless communication . The covert wireless network that Gambier - Parry established allowed him to stay in communication with SIS agents in many countries . Historian Hugh Trevor - Roper served with the Radio Security Service ( part of the Secret Intelligence Service after May 1941 ) and could not help liking the head of Section VIII . " In the world of neurotic policemen and timid placemen who rule the secret service , he moves like Falstaff , or some figure from Balzac , if not Rabelais . " Involvement in Operation Tracer . In 1941 , Rear Admiral John Henry Godfrey , the Director of British Naval Intelligence , chose Colonel Gambier - Parry as his radio consultant for Operation Tracer , a highly - classified , military operation in which a team sealed in a clandestine observation post was to monitor enemy vessels should Gibraltar fall to the Axis Powers . The team of six volunteers included three signalmen who would radio information back to the Admiralty . The covert complex " ( diagrams pictured left and right ) " was excavated in the existing tunnel system of Lord Airey ' s Shelter in the Rock of Gibraltar . There were two observation apertures , one west over the Bay of Gibraltar , and the other east over the Mediterranean . A small radio room contained the equipment for wireless communications , which included a Mark 3 transmitter and an HRO Receiver . Three 12 volt , 120 ampere batteries were charged with one of two generators , one bicycle - propelled and the other hand - cranked . A rod aerial measuring 18 feet ( 5 . 5 m ) in length extended up the staircase in a tube from the radio room and was inserted through the east observation aperture prior to transmission and was withdrawn when transmission was completed . In January 1942 , Gambier - Parry began trials of the radio communications for Operation Tracer , using equipment that he already had at Gibraltar , and sending one of his staff to conduct trials in the excavated radio room . By 30 April 1942 , the three signalmen for the mission had been selected . Their training began in May 1942 , during which the wireless communications in which they engaged remained undetected by the Radio Security Service . By August of that year , the full Operation Tracer team was in position in Gibraltar . However , a year later , in August 1943 , the team was disbanded when the Director of Naval Intelligence decided that he did not need the operation to go into commission . Military honours and later life . In 1942 , Richard Gambier - Parry received the rank of Brigadier . On 1 January 1945 , his appointment as Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George ( CMG ) was announced in the Supplement to the London Gazette . He ran a network of secret listening stations after the war , and was appointed Director of Communications at Hanslope Park , in the Borough of Milton Keynes . On 11 April 1947 , he was granted the honorary rank of Brigadier in the Royal Welch Fusiliers . On 11 April 1949 , Brigadier Gambier - Parry , with service number 9669 , was appointed honorary Colonel in the Royal Corps of Signals . He retired in 1955 . The Director of Communications of the Foreign Office was honoured as a Knight Commander of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George ( KCMG ) on 2 January 1956 . Gambier - Parry and his wife had a home in Malta , where he founded a successful casino . In England , he was active in the community during his retirement , serving as president of the Bletchley Conservative Club and president of the Milton Keynes Cricket Club . In addition , he was a regular speaker at the yearly Bletchley Police dinner . Brigadier Sir Richard Gambier - Parry died on 19 June 1965 at Abbots Close , Milton Keynes Village . In 1974 , information about Bletchley Park started to become declassified and was made known to the British public .