216 • GOVERNMENT CODE AND CIPHER SCHOOL
work, was published by a formerSecret Intelligence Serviceofficer,
Evan Simpson, under the pen name Evan John.GOVERNMENT CODE AND CIPHER SCHOOL (GC&CS).The
British Intelligence organization responsible for the development of
Britain’s secure codes and the principal cryptographic agency. GC&
CS was created after World War I fromRoom 40and was led by
CommanderAlastair Dennistonuntil 1943. Denniston was suc-
ceeded by (Sir) Edward Travis, and the organization was renamed the
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a title which
remains to this day. Originally located in Queensgate, South Ken-
sington, GC&CS moved toBletchley Parkin 1938.
G(R).Before theMiddle East MissionofSpecial Operations Execu-
tive(SOE) was formally established inCairo, there were several
competing clandestine organizations based in Egypt, among them
MO4 and G(R), both created under the auspices of the War Office.
G(R), an abbreviation of ‘‘General Research,’’ was also known as
GSI(R) and ‘‘the Jerusalem Bureau,’’ and in 1942 it was the last of
the independent covert bodies to be absorbed into SOE. G(R) ini-
tially developed as the Middle East cover of Joe Holland’sMI(R)
and was led byPeter Fleming, who promotedyak, a project to re-
cruit anti-Fascists from among Italian PoWs. Fleming’s team con-
sisted of Bill Stirling and four other instructors from Lochailort, but
their scheme failed through a total lack of committed volunteers
among the prisoners, so instead they moved toGreeceto prepare a
stay-behind network. They were obliged to withdraw, on the British
Legation’s yacht, almost as soon as they had arrived, and upon their
return to Palestine, established a training school at Haifa. Finally,
Fleming was recalled to England, and Stirling moved on to the Long
Range Desert Group.
GRAND, LAURENCE.A charismatic Royal Engineers officer edu-
cated at Rugby and Woolwich, Colonel Laurence Grand master-
minded the creation of theSecret Intelligence Service’sSection D
(for ‘‘destruction’’) in March 1938, intended as a sabotage organiza-
tion to undertake deniable operations in Europe, the Balkans, and the
Near East. Section D was absorbed intoSpecial Operations Execu-