Editing Emily Anderson

{{Short description|Irish cryptanalyst, Professor of German & music historian (1891–1962)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
{{Use Irish English|date=June 2020}}
'''Emily Anderson''' [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] (17 March 1891 – 26 October 1962) was an Irish scholar of German ancestry, music historian and [[Cryptanalysis|cryptanalyst]] at the British [[GCHQ|Government Code and Cipher School (now GCHQ)]] for almost 30 years.<ref name="UíChionna-biog">{{cite book |last1=Uí Chionna |first1=Jackie |title=The Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain's Greatest Female Code Breaker |date=April 2023 |publisher=Headline |isbn=9781472295477 |edition=1}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=3 May 2023 |title=Uncovering the hidden history of codebreaker Emily Anderson |url=https://physicsworld.com/a/uncovering-the-hidden-history-of-codebreaker-emily-anderson/ |access-date=18 September 2023}}</ref><ref name="Ferris">{{cite book |last1=Ferris |first1=John |title=Behind the enigma: the authorised history of GCHQ, Britain´s Secret Cyber-Intelligence Agency |date=2021 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |location=London Oxford New York New Delhi Sydney |isbn=9781526605467 |pages=89-90, 114-15, 339, 439-40, 442, 446 |edition=1}}</ref>

==Early life==
Anderson was born in [[Galway]], [[Ireland]], the daughter of physicist [[Alexander Anderson (physicist)|Alexander Anderson]], a Presbyterian from [[Coleraine]], and his wife Emily Gertrude Binns. Alexander Anderson became president of [[Queens College Galway]] (QCG) in 1899.<ref name="healy">{{Cite web |title=The Lives of Emily Anderson: Galway professor, music historian, and British intelligence officer |url=https://mooreinstitute.ie/2017/03/20/lives-emily-anderson-galway-professor-music-historian-british-intelligence-officer/ |access-date=15 May 2023 |website=www.mooreinstitute.ie|date=20 March 2017 }}</ref>

She was educated privately and won the Browne Scholarship in both 1909 and 1910 at QCG, where she received a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in 1911.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /><ref name="healy" /> She displayed a strong interest in the [[suffragette]] movement in Galway. After further study at universities in [[Berlin]] and [[Marburg]], she taught for two years at [[Queen's College (Barbados)|Queen's College, Barbados]].<ref name="healy" /> She then returned in 1917 to Galway where she was appointed the first [[Professor]] of [[German language|German]] at [[NUI Galway|University College Galway]].<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /><ref name="Ferris" /><ref name="gnews">{{Cite web |date=14 February 2017 |title=Ceremony to Mark Naming of Emily Anderson Concert Hall at NUI Galway |url=https://www.nuigalway.ie/about-us/news-and-events/news-archive/2017/february2017/ceremony-to-mark-naming-of-emily-anderson-concert-hall-at-nui-galway.html |access-date=22 March 2017 |website=NUI Galway News}}</ref>

==Career in cryptanalysis==
Anderson was approached to join [[MI1|MI1b]], the [[cryptanalysis]] section of the British [[War Office]], in the autumn of 1917 and she moved to [[London]] to take up duty in July 1918. She was initially trained to join the [[Hush WAACs]] in France but was never deployed.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /> She resigned her academic post for the duration of the war. Her deputy at MI1b was [[Alda Milner-Barry]].<ref name="UíChionna-biog" />

In 1919, Anderson returned to Cork to resume her academic career. [[Malcolm Vivian Hay|Major Malcolm Vivian Hay]] and [[Alastair Denniston]] named Anderson as a codebreaker they wanted to keep in the newly formed [[GCHQ|Government Code and Cipher School (now GCHQ)]]. Anderson agreed, but requested equal pay and grading to the men at her level. She resumed her career at GC&CS on 10 January 1920, with the cover story that she was working in the [[Foreign Office]].<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /> Anderson became Head of the Italian Diplomatic section.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /> 

In the 1930s, Anderson collaborated with [[Dilly Knox]] on building the Hungarian codebreaking books. She also managed and trained codebreakers like [[Wilfred Bodsworth]] and [[Josh Cooper (cryptographer)|Josh Cooper]].<ref name="UíChionna-biog" />

Anderson and her team moved from London to [[Bletchley Park]] in August 1939. She was initially billeted with [[Maurice Hayward]] and his family until October 1939 when she had moved, along with a woman who could have been [[Dorothy Brooks]], to the family home of [[Patricia Bartley]].<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /> Anderson recognised Bartley's potential and recommended her to Denniston.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /><ref name="Ferris" />

In May 1940, Anderson asked to be closer to the point Italian signals were being intercepted, in order to decrypt them faster. Her request coincided with a request to Denniston from the commander in chief of the Middle East campaign, and he agreed she should be part of setting up a GC&CS branch closer to the [[East African campaign (World War II)|Italian campaign in East Africa]]. Anderson and Brooks travelled by sea to [[Durban]] in [[South Africa]] and then overland to [[Heliopolis, Cairo|Heliopolis]] in [[Cairo]]. In Cairo, the team decrypted Italian [[Signals intelligence]]. In July 1943, Anderson was awarded the [[OBE]] by [[King George VI]] for her "services to the forces and in connection with military operations".<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /><ref name="Ferris" />

In May 1943, Anderson returned to [[London]] to work on German and Hungarian diplomatic codes in GC&CS's Berkeley Street offices.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=GCHQ: Emily Anderson |url=https://www.gchq.gov.uk/person/emily-anderson |access-date=15 May 2023}}</ref> She remained with GC&CS, working primarily on Hungarian codes, until her retirement in November 1950.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /><ref name="healy" />

==Writing career==
In parallel with her secret career in GC&CS, Anderson gained public renown for her translation work. 
In 1923 she published a translation of [[Benedetto Croce]]'s book on [[Goethe]]. She edited and translated ''The Letters of [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and His Family'', which was published in 1938.<ref name="gnews" /> Her ''Letters of [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]]'' was published in 1961. [[West Germany]] awarded Anderson the [[Bundesverdienstkreuz|Order of Merit]] (Officer's Cross First Class) for her work on Beethoven.<ref>{{Cite web |date=18 March 2019 |title=Memorial concert celebrates the impact one astonishing Galwegian had on the music world |url=https://www.galwaydaily.com/life-style/emily-anderson-memorial-concert |access-date=15 October 2020 |website=www.galwaydaily.com}}</ref><ref name="Ferris" />

In November 1961, Anderson was interviewed on BBC radio about her work on the Beethoven Letters, and in 1962 she presented a lecture on Beethoven to the Royal Musical Association at the [[Royal Academy of Music]].<ref name="UíChionna-biog" />

==Personal life==
Anderson never married. She shared a room with [[Dorothy Brooks]] whilst living with the Bartley's at [[Bletchley Park]], and Patricia Bartley thought the women were lovers.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" /> Anderson asked that Brooks come with her to Cairo. She also, for four years in the 1950s, shared her flat in London with a woman. In Uí Chionna's biography, she suggests there was no economic reason for Anderson, a very private person, to take in a lodger.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" />

Anderson died at [[Hampstead]], London on 26 October 1962, after a period of heart problems and declining health.<ref name="UíChionna-biog" />

==Legacy==
The [[Royal Philharmonic Society]] awards the annual Emily Anderson Prize to young violinists in Anderson's honour.<ref name="gnews" />

NUI Galway has named their concert hall the Emily Anderson Concert Hall in her memory. Music for Galway, in conjunction with NUI Galway, holds an annual concert in her honour.<ref name="gnews" />

==See also==
* [[Florence Moon]]
* [[Mary Donovan O'Sullivan]]

==Sources==
* Obituary, ''The Times'', Monday, 29 October 1962; pg. 12; Issue 55534; col F
* ''On the "Western Outpost":Local Government and Women's Suffrage in County Galway, 1898-1918'', Mary Clancy, pp.&nbsp;557–587, in "Galway:History and Society", 1996
* Translated Penguin Book – at [http://www.penguinfirsteditions.com/index.php?cat=TranslatorsA-G Penguin First Editions] reference site of early first edition Penguin Books.

==References==
{{Reflist}}
<ref name=anderson>[https://apple.news/ARAYiosyvTi67SPMiGnXawQ` Bletchley's hidden weapon: how history forgot the story of Britain's greatest female codebreaker], by Jackie Uí Chionna, [[BBC History Magazine]]</ref>

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Emily}}
[[Category:1891 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:Academics of the University of Galway]]
[[Category:Civil servants in the War Office]]
[[Category:Civil servants in the Foreign Office]]
[[Category:People from Galway (city)]]
[[Category:People from County Galway]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Officers Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany]]
[[Category:British women biographers]]
[[Category:British biographers]]
[[Category:Beethoven scholars]]
[[Category:Mozart scholars]]
[[Category:Irish cryptographers]]
[[Category:20th-century cryptographers]]
[[Category:Women cryptographers]]