Edward Travis

Educated locally in Blackheath, Travis joined the Royal Navy in 1906 as a Paymaster officer, and served on HMS Iron Duke.

[1] This may have happened because in October 1941 four senior cryptanalysts, Alan Turing, Gordon Welchman, Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, and Stuart Milner-Barry had written directly to Churchill, over the head of Denniston, to alert Churchill to the fact that a shortage of staff at Bletchley Park was preventing them from deciphering many messages, to the detriment of the war effort.

[4] However, Christopher Grey notes that other factors also contributed to Travis' promotion, including a personality clash between Denniston and Stewart Menzies, the Director of the Government Code and Cypher School and the head of the Secret Intelligence Service, as well as an ongoing and unresolved management crisis in Hut 3.

[5] Turing's biographer says that after the change, Travis "presided over an administrative revolution" reconciling the management structure to the production process.

[7] Travis remained head of the post-war successor to GCCS, GCHQ, and served as its director until 15 April 1952, when he was replaced by Eric Jones.