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Japanese Code School |
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| When breaking Japanese codes became really important in the early 1940's it became apparent that there was an acute shortage of Japanese linguists.
GCCS investigated ways of remedying this & made an approach to the School of Oriental & African Studies - the centre of excellence for Japanese within the U.K. They were told it would take 5 years to fully train linguists. Brigadier John Tiltman one of Bletchley Park's leading codebreakers had taught himself sufficient Japanese in 6 months to break Japanese Military Attaches codes. After some pressure SOAS agreed to run a 2-year course for GCCS. |
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| Still not satisfied Tiltman ran his own courses. He got a retired naval officer named Tuck to help him. Tuck had taught Japanese for over 40 years and was a natural teacher. Tiltman convinced Tuck of the urgent need for courses and Tuck agreed to put on a 6-month course.
The first course met in a room over gas showrooms in Bedford in the Broadway opposite John Bunyan's statue. The courses were an immediate success. People on the first course came back later to teach on later courses. In all, 11 courses were run and the venue moved to a detached house - 52 De Parys Avenue Bedford. SOAS eventually ran one- and two- year courses. |
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| Fifth Japanese language school at Bedford 31.8.43-18.2.44. Commander Tuck with beard centre front row | ||||||
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