28 Facts About Oswald Tuck

Instructor Captain Oswald Thomas Tuck was a naval officer and teacher of Japanese.

Oswald Tuck served as a naval instructor in navigation and Japanese and later translated a confidential history of the Russo-Japanese War.

Oswald Tuck retired as an Instructor Captain in the Royal Navy but was recalled to duty in 1941 to run the Bedford Japanese School, which trained young men and women for work at Bletchley Park.

Oswald Tuck attended the Royal Hospital School, Greenwich, leaving in January 1892 with the highest results in his class.

Oswald Tuck was the only candidate but his examination papers were judged excellent.

Oswald Tuck began work at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, on 11 January 1892, at the age of 15.

Oswald Tuck must have continued his astronomical studies for, in November 1895, at the age of 19, he was the youngest person ever elected a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Oswald Tuck was proposed by Edward Walter Maunder, who was a senior member of staff at the Royal Observatory.

Oswald Tuck served first in HMS Goliath, a pre-Dreadnought battleship launched in 1898 and based on the China Station, and later in HMS King Alfred, an armoured cruiser which was the flagship of the China Station.

In June 1904, four years after Oswald Tuck had begun learning Japanese on his own initiative and two years after the Anglo-Japanese Alliance had come into force, the Admiralty made special arrangements for the study of Japanese by naval officers, allowing up to a year's residence in Japan.

In February 1906 Vice-Admiral Noel wrote to Tuck and forwarded to him extracts from an Admiralty letter dated 25 October 1905, which stated that 'it would be a convenience if the services of Mr Oswald Tuck could be utilized in connection with the instruction in the Japanese language of Naval Officers on the China Station, having regard to his special qualifications for such work'.

Oswald Tuck returned to England in 1909 and was attached to the Naval Ordnance Department of the Admiralty while nominally assigned to HMS President.

Oswald Tuck was eventually promoted to Instructor Commander, with seniority dating from 1913.

Oswald Tuck remained an Instructor Commander until he retired in 1924, when he was given the rank of Instructor Captain: he was the only one without a university degree.

Oswald Tuck continued to work on the volumes of the official naval history of the Great War until 1937, in the capacity of Technical Assistant in the Historical Section of the Committee of Imperial Defence.

Oswald Tuck first visited Japan in November 1900 and was immediately enthusiastic.

Oswald Tuck wrote to his future wife: 'I take back every word I have said against the Japanese; they are the most delightful people on the face of the earth.

Oswald Tuck was practicing his Japanese with a young man named Tajima, and asked the Japanese consul to help find him a teacher.

Oswald Tuck was permitted to bring on board a young Japanese man as a servant, Kondo Takezo: with Kondo he began learning Chinese characters.

Oswald Tuck reapplied, and forwarded to the Admiral with a letter from H Kirino, the acting Japanese consul in Hong Kong, saying, 'I do hereby certify that Mr Oswald T Tuck RN of HMS Goliath can now speak Japanese tolerably well and after one year's exclusive study there is no doubt of the possibility of his expert talking of the same.

Oswald Tuck spent a lot of time with Kikutake Jitsuzo, a young student.

Oswald Tuck played an active part in the Japan Society, which he joined as a life member in 1909: he served on the Council and gave lectures on a variety of subjects in the 1920s and 1930s.

In September 1939 Oswald Tuck came out of retirement and was appointed Assistant Press Censor in Japanese at the Ministry of Information, serving under Arthur Waley, the scholar and translator of Chinese and Japanese.

On 2 January 1942 Oswald Tuck met Commander Alastair Denniston, the head of Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, and he visited Bletchley on 13 January.

The second course began in August 1942 and from this point on Oswald Tuck was assisted by some of his most able students from the first course, particularly Eric Ceadel, who in 1947 became the first lecturer in Japanese at Cambridge University.

In 1946 Oswald Tuck was asked to take charge of a group of men who were required to translate captured Japanese materials at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and this lasted from 6 March to 22 November.

Oswald Tuck was warmly appreciated by his former pupils: Eric Ceadel continued to write to him from Cambridge, and David Goldberg, one of the many Jews at Bedford and Bletchley Park wrote, 'I should like you to accept the little book enclosed herewith as a token of my thanks to you for the past six months so pleasantly spent in Bedford, and especially for helping me to keep our Jewish religious observances throughout the period.

On 25 July 1912 Oswald Tuck married Florence Jane Peglar : in his letters he referred to her as Florrie and then, after they were married, as Peggy.