Bernard Babington Smith

Bernard Babington Smith, OBE (26 October 1905 – 23 September 1993) was a British academic, wartime intelligence officer and amateur athlete.

Shortly before the 1930 British Empire Games in Canada, Smith finished third behind Age van der Zee and Henry Lindblad in the pole jump event at the 1930 AAA Championships.

Among his first duties and basic training was detachment to Coventry to assist with the clearing up process after the German air raid in November 1940.

He was initially posted to 3 Photo Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) at RAF Oakington as the deputy intelligence officer, arriving on 1 December 1940.

In mid-1941 he was posted to the Central Interpretation Unit (CIU) at RAF Medmenham,[14] where his sister Constance Babington Smith was also stationed, and tasked with setting up a Night Photographic Section.

Bernard, a trained statistician developed a system for the selection of photography to be interpreted after each raid which enabled his section to cope.