‘Bright chaps for hush-hush jobs’: masculinity, class and civilians in uniform at Bletchley Park

Christopher Smith

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

During the Second World War the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS), headquartered at the now famous Bletchley Park, was tasked with collecting, deciphering and reading Axis wireless communications traffic. Agency recruitment and management strategies were heavily coloured by internal, dominant notions of masculinity, which revolved around class and gender based assumptions within wider British society. Many men were drawn from Britain’s ancient universities in the inter-war period and masculinity in the agency was decidedly civilian character by 1939. However, a rapid wartime influx of military men posed a significant challenge to this internal masculine culture. The result was that GC&CS developed its own peculiar, wartime hierarchy of masculinity, a hybrid of the competing notions derived from its primary sources of recruitment.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationMen, Masculinities and Male Culture in the Second World War
EditorsJuliette Pattinson, Linsey Robb
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan
Chapter7
Pages145-168
Number of pages24
ISBN (Electronic)978-1-349-95290-8
ISBN (Print)978-1349952892
Publication statusPublished - 2018

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masculinity
World War
communications
Military
traffic
university
gender
management
school
Society

Keywords

  • Bletchley Park
  • Class
  • Masculinity
  • Gender
  • Secrecy
  • Second World War

Cite this

Smith, C. (2018). ‘Bright chaps for hush-hush jobs’: masculinity, class and civilians in uniform at Bletchley Park. In J. Pattinson, & L. Robb (Eds.), Men, Masculinities and Male Culture in the Second World War (pp. 145-168). Palgrave Macmillan.

‘Bright chaps for hush-hush jobs’ : masculinity, class and civilians in uniform at Bletchley Park. / Smith, Christopher.

Men, Masculinities and Male Culture in the Second World War. ed. / Juliette Pattinson; Linsey Robb. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. p. 145-168.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Smith, C 2018, ‘Bright chaps for hush-hush jobs’: masculinity, class and civilians in uniform at Bletchley Park. in J Pattinson & L Robb (eds), Men, Masculinities and Male Culture in the Second World War. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 145-168.
Smith C. ‘Bright chaps for hush-hush jobs’: masculinity, class and civilians in uniform at Bletchley Park. In Pattinson J, Robb L, editors, Men, Masculinities and Male Culture in the Second World War. Palgrave Macmillan. 2018. p. 145-168
Smith, Christopher. / ‘Bright chaps for hush-hush jobs’ : masculinity, class and civilians in uniform at Bletchley Park. Men, Masculinities and Male Culture in the Second World War. editor / Juliette Pattinson ; Linsey Robb. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018. pp. 145-168
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