DEHS Autumn conference on Security and Intelligence, 27 November 2019

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME [pdf]

To coincide with the Top Secret exhibition at the Science Museum, curator Dr Elizabeth (Liz) Bruton and DEHS President Keith Thrower organised a DEHS conference with the title ‘Security & Intelligence’ which took place on Wednesday 27 November.

The Science Museum kindly allowed the DEHS to hold the conference in their newly opened Smith Centre, located near the front the Science Museum building.

There were seven speakers:

  • The Keynote Address at the conference was given by Tony Comer, the GCHQ Departmental Historian.
  • Professor John Ferris gave a talk on the published history of the GCHQ.
  • Dr David Kenyon, the Bletchley Park historian, gave a talk on the History of Bletchley Park.
  • Dr Helen Fry gave a talk on ‘Listening-in: what was discovered from senior German POWs in WW2’.
  • A senior representative from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) told us of the present-day cyber threat.
  • Dr Olga Topol, of the Pilsudski Institute in London, gave a talk on the Enigma Double Machine.
  • Keith Thrower gave a talk on the Fullerphone which was used to provide secure Morse communication across the battlefield in the two World Wars.

Both the IET History of Technology Committee and the Newcomen Society were co-sponsors.