Alastair Denniston was born in Greenock, Renfrewshire, the son of a medical practitioner.
10 Facts About Alastair Denniston
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Alastair Denniston studied at the University of Bonn and the University of Paris.
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Alastair Denniston was a member of the Scottish Olympic hockey team in 1908 and won a bronze medal.
4.
Alastair Denniston played as a half-back, and his club team was listed as Edinburgh.
5.
In 1914, Alastair Denniston helped form Room 40 in the Admiralty, an organisation responsible for intercepting and decrypting enemy messages.
6.
Sinclair acquired the Bletchley Park property and Alastair Denniston was assigned to prepare the site and design the huts to be built on the grounds.
7.
On 26 July 1939, five weeks before the outbreak of war, Alastair Denniston was one of three Britons who participated in the trilateral Polish-French-British conference held in the Kabaty Woods south of Warsaw, at which the Polish Biuro Szyfrow initiated the French and British into the decryption of German military Enigma ciphers.
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Alastair Denniston remained in command until he was admitted to hospital in June 1940 for a bladder stone.
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Alastair Denniston returned to Bletchley Park for a while but moved to London later in 1941 to work on diplomatic traffic.
10.
Alastair Denniston retired in 1945, and later taught French and Latin in Leatherhead.