Frank Birch

For the college football and basketball referee, see Frank Birch (referee).

Francis Lyall "Frank" Birch, CMG OBE (5 December 1889 – 14 February 1956) was a British cryptographer and actor.^[1] He was educated at Eton College and King's College, Cambridge.

Francis Lyall Birch
Born	(1889-12-05)5 December 1889 London, England
Died	14 February 1956(1956-02-14) (aged 66) London, England
Other names	Frank Birch
Occupation(s)	Cryptographer and actor
Spouse	Vera Benedicta Gage

During World War I, he served as a lieutenant commander with the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and served in the Atlantic, the Channel and the Dardanelles before joining the Naval Intelligence Division (Room 40) from 1916 to 1919. Birch wrote a satirical history of Room 40, Alice in ID25. Birch was appointed an OBE in 1919.^{[citation needed]}

He was a fellow of King's College, Cambridge, between 1915 and 1934 and a lecturer in history at Cambridge from 1921 until 1928. Birch left Cambridge to pursue an acting career in the 1930s, including the role of Widow Twankey in pantomime.^[2]

In 1939, he was part of a BBC television production in a Teresa Deevy play "In Search of Valour".^[3]

He joined the Naval section at Bletchley Park in September 1939, and later became Head of the (German) Naval Section. He had to face the shortage of Bombes to decipher the Naval Enigma, which led to the use of American Bombes via OP-20-G. Birch was awarded a CMG in 1945.^{[citation needed]}

Selected filmography

• School for Stars (1935) - Robert Blake
• Jubilee Window (1935) - Ambrose Holroyd
• Cross Currents (1935) - Rev. Eustace Hickling
• Wolf's Clothing (1936) - Reverend John Laming
• Love at Sea (1936) - Mr. Godwin
• Such Is Life (1936) - Mockett
• Jump for Glory (1937) - Vicar
• Double Exposures (1937) - Kempton
• Twin Faces (1937) - Ben Zwigi
• Victoria the Great (1937) - Sir Charles Dilke
• Jennifer Hale (1937) - Sharman
• The Academy Decides (1937)
• Who Goes Next? (1938) - Capt. Grover
• The Challenge (1938) - Rev. Charles Hudson
• The Villiers Diamond (1938) - Silas Wade
• Lady in the Fog (1952) - Boswell - the airport manager
• Will Any Gentleman...? (1953) - Mr. Brown
• Face the Music (1954) - Trumpet Salesman

References

1. Profile, BFI.org. Accessed 23 November 2022.
2. Davidson, Maitland (30 June 1932). "Theatre Notes". The Daily Telegraph. London.
3. "The Teresa Deevy Archive". Retrieved 23 November 2022.

Sources

• Ralph Erskine, Birch, Francis Lyall (1889–1956), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Action this Day edited by Michael Smith & Ralph Erskine (2001, Bantam London); ISBN 0-593-04910-1

External links

• Frank Birch at IMDb
• Francis Birch at the Teresa Deevy Archive