AMarch 28 1995
The Daily Telegraph, London, Greater London, England, Tuesday, March 28, 1995
On March 25, 1995, after short illness, Sir Stuart Milner-Barry KCVO CB, OBE, aged 88. Dearly loved husband of Thelma and father of Alda, Jane and Philip. Funeral service at St. Mary's Church, Great Shelford, Cambridge, on Friday, March 31 at 12 noon.
Thanksgiving Service in London to be announced.
March 29 1995
The Independent, London, Greater London, England, Wednesday, March 29, 1995
Sir Stuart Milner-Barry
Stuart Milner-Barry was, to the chess world, the last of the brilliant gentlemen amateurs. When the resignation of a hopeless chess position, in county match or international tournament, was accompanied by a chuckling, booming whisper of “You were far too good for me, I fear,” it had to be the voice of Milner-Barry.
In recent years, the modest resignations had come more frequently, but in his prime Milner-Barry was one of the most gifted attacking players of his generation. Despite his prowess at chess, however, and a passion for the game undiminished throughout 70 years of tournament play, he was too rational a man to let it take anything other than second place in his career in the Civil Service.
In fact, Milner-Barry could be said to have had three distinguished careers: a wartime cryptanalyst, peacetime mandarin, and chess player. Winner of the first British Boys' Championship in 1923, he was already established as a rising talent in chess by the time he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge. He took First Class honours in Classics (part I) and Moral Science (part II), but, most important of all, it was at Cambridge that Milner-Barry became friends with C.H.O'D. (Hugh) Alexander, the young man who had deprived him of the British Boys' title in 1924. Their subsequent friendship was to play a remarkable part in Britain's war effort.
Apart from interrupting play in the 1939 Chess Olympics in Buenos Aires, the war came at a good time for Milner-Barry. He had been having a miserable time as a city stockbroker before being recruited to Bletchley Park by his fellow Trinity scholar Gordon Welchman.
“I am…almost innumerate,” Milner-Barry wrote in 1993. “I therefore found Gordon Welchman's patient explanations very difficult to follow, and to this day I could not claim that I fully understood how the machine worked.” Yet Milner-Barry's penetrating intellect and organizational ability were exactly what Welchman's genius needed to flourish in the cryptanalytical work of Hut 6. Meanwhile, in Hut 8, where they worked on U-Boat ciphers, a similar relationship developed with Hugh Alexander providing high-level mathematical skill and supreme organizational competence to inspire Alan Turing to the solution of impossible problems.
Realizing the importance of the Bletchley Park work to the war effort, those four men wrote to Churchill in 1941 to request additional resources. And it was Milner-Barry who delivered the letter personally.
After the war Milner-Barry joined the Treasury, rising to the post of Under-Secretary, which he held from 1954 until reaching the normal retiring age of 60 in 1966. He was then asked to stay on at the new Civil Service Department as Ceremonial Officer, with principal responsibility for administering the honours system.
Appointed OBE in 1946 for his work at Bletchley, CB in 1962 for his work at the Treasury, he was created KCVO in 1975, two years before his retirement.
Chess players, however, will remember him for the Milner-Barry variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence, two characteristically pugnacious attacking systems in traditionally quiet openings. His charm and modesty belied a savagely effective attacking style honed to perfection through a series of “seriously friendly games” against his old rival Hugh Alexander. He scored good results for the English team between 1937 and 1961 and was President of the British Chess Federation from 1970 to 1973. To this day, Milner-Barry remains perhaps the only English player to have an opening variation known by his name the world over.
William Hartston
Philip Stuart Milner-Barry, civil servant, chess-player: born 20 September 1906; chess correspondent, the Times 1938-45; Principal, HM Treasury 1945, Assistant Secretary 1947, Director of Organization and Methods 1954-58, Under-Secretary 1954-66; OBE 1946; Director of Establishments and Organisation, Ministry of Health 1958-60; CB 1962; Ceremonial Officer, Civil Service Department 1966-77; President, British Chess Federation 1970-73; KCVO 1975; married 1947 Thelma Wells (one son, two daughters); died 25 March 1995.
April 08 1995
The Daily Telegraph, London, Greater London, England, Saturday, April 08, 1995
Sir Stuart Milner-Barry who has died aged 88 played an outstanding role in the secret work on high-level German ciphers at Bletchley Park during the Second World War.
Subsequently he went from strength to strength as a senior civil servant in the Treasury. Finally having passed the normal retirement age of 60 he spent a further decade as Ceremonial Officer in the Civil Service Department charged with the staff work for the Honours Lists.
One of the five sons of a professor of German, Philip Stuart Milner-Barry was born on Sept. 20, 1906 and won scholarships to Cheltenham College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took firsts in the Classical Tripos (Part I) and the Moral Science Tripos (Part II).
He subsequently became a stockbroker though he reserved his enthusiasm for chess. A former boy champion of Britain he won the City of London Tournament in 1933, came second in the British Championship of 1953 and also represented Britain From 1938 to 1945 he was chess correspondent of The Times.
On the outbreak of war, Milner-Barry was recruited by Gordon Welchman, the first head of Hut 6 at Bletchley Park which with Hut 8, deciphered German messages relating to air and army movements In 1945 Milner-Barry left his job as a civil and entered the Treasury as a principal rising to under-secretary. His duties included a stint at the Ministry of Health. In 1966 he was appointed Ceremonial Officer. He retired in 1977.
He was appointed OBE in 1946; CB in 1962 and KCVO in 1975.
Milner-Barry married in 1947, Thelma Wells; they had a son and two daughters.
William P Bundy writes: It was my special privilege to serve under Stuart Milner-Barry in Hut 6 at Bletchley Park with a 50-man American detachment that arrived there in the summer of 1943 to learn how the work was done and to contribute.
As they took aboard these strange Americans with a dubious national reputation for keeping secrets the veterans who had broken the Enigma cipher first by immensely ingenious hand methods and then by machines that anticipated the shrewd judge of people age of computers must have had serious qualms.
On our side after the initial impression of extraordinary technical virtuosity in a most austere setting what sank in was the equally remarkable efficiency of the whole Enigma operation especially Hut 6.
As we picked up bits and pieces from the earlier years — the Blitz, the Bismarck, El Alamein — it became clear that the smooth and happy shop into which we moved had been forged with great care, sensitivity and judgment. Gordon Welchman had been the right opening stroke but Stuart Milner-Barry was the man for the long windy miles and turns.
Always calm and reserved though apt occasionally to burst forth with a deep laugh Milner-Barry had the two priceless attributes of leadership, shrewd judgment of people and situations, and the ability to impart a deep sense of common purpose and pride. Most of all he inspired trust.
It is now history how, in the autumn of 1941, he joined with Welchman, Hugh Alexander and Alan Turing (to us a legend seldom seen in the flesh), in a letter to Churchill pointing out politely but firmly that their breakthroughs had far outpaced the support staff available.
Notably it was Milner-Barry who was chosen to deliver the letter in the only way possible given the subject unannounced. He rang the door bell at No. 10 and with a few quiet words persuaded the butler and a private secretary that his missive must go to the Prime Minister at once. Churchill immediately accorded the work top priority.
Milner-Barry's work on the honours list cannot be judged from the outside. That it was valued highly seemed clear in 1975 when his own name was tacked on to the list for a KCVO, after submissions had been closed. I doubt it crossed his mind that but for the continuing need to preserve the secrecy surrounding Enigma he might have had that honour years earlier.
In all a man both simple and noble, immensely warm and caring towards his wife and children, and towards his many devoted friends.
In serving his country superbly he also stood for the best in Anglo-American relations. At the moment one can look back to those halcyon days only with a twinge of pain.
June 16 1995
The Daily Telegraph, London, Greater London, England, Friday, June 16, 1995
Sir Stuart Milner-Barry
A service of thanksgiving for the life of Sir Stuart Milner-Barry was held yesterday in Westminster Abbey. Canon Donald Gray officiated assisted by the Rev. Robert Dampier. Lord Armstrong of Ilminster read the lesson and Miss Alda Milner-Barry (daughter) read Psalm 15. The address was given by Capt. A.B. Sainsbury. Among those present were:
Lady Milner-Barry (widow),
Mr. and Mrs. Philip Milner-Barry (son and daughter-in-law),
Mrs. Jane Ballard (daughter),
Mr. Joe Flores (son-in-law),
Charlotte Milner-Barry,
Sarah Milner-Barry,
Kitty Ballard,
Edward Ballard (grandchildren),
Mr. and Mrs. Anthony Cutler (brother-in-law and sister-in-law),
Mrs. Patrick Milner-Barry (sister-in-law),
Mr. Simon Milner-Barry,
Mrs. Richard Came,
Mr. Andrew Came, Miss Faith Lyons.
Lady Trend,
Sir Antony and Lady Duff,
Sir Michael Alexander,
Sir Frederick Mason,
Lady Clarke,
Mr. Roger and Dame Mary Hedley-Miller,
Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Bennett.
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Gedling,
Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Keene,
Mr. J. Mark,
Mr. and Mrs. Martin Moynihan,
Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Nicoll,
Major and Mrs. W.A. Watson.
Mr. Anthony Merifield, Ceremonial Officer, Cabinet Office, also representing the Secretary of the Cabinet and Head of the Home Civil Service;
Mr. Roger Bristow, Chief Executive, Bletchley Park Trust Limited, with Mr. Peter Wescombe General Manager and Mrs. Wescombe, Mr. Anthony E. Sale, Museums Director and Mrs. M.D. Sale, Archivist:
Mr. David Sedgwick, President, Southern Counties Chess Union, with Mr. Anthony Suttill, Treasurer;
Mr. Mitchell Taylor, The Times British Schools Chess Championship, and representatives of the Blackheath Wives' Fellowship, together with other friends.
July 02 1995
The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, Sunday, July 02, 1995
2 Britons Who Helped Win Biggest Game of All
By Harold B. Dondis
SPECIAL TO THE GLOBE
It is indeed a coincidence - and the passing of an era - that two great British chess players, Harry Golombek, 84, and Sir Philip Stuart Milner-Barry, 89, died this year. These two men were among the greatest of English chess players, but both will be most remembered for their amazing code-breaking work that had enormous impact on the outcome of World War II. For this work each was awarded the Order of the British Empire.
Golombek won the British team championship three times. He was the London Times chess correspondent for 34 years. He told me that, through his code-breaking department, he personally delivered the German battle plans to Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery the day before the British decisively repulsed Gen. Erwin Rommel's forces at Alam Halfa, halting their desert march toward Cairo. Golombek gave Montgomery the exact date and point of attack by which Rommel hoped to destroy the British army. Montgomery, said Golombek, would never give him credit for his contribution to the victory.
Sir Stuart Milner-Barry had been a British Junior Champion and a strong international master. The Milner-Barry Gambit, a line in the French defense and the Milner-Barry Variation, a Nimzo-Indian variation, bear his name.
The major British chess players were on a chess team playing in Argentina in the 1939 chess Olympiades when World War II broke out. The team, including Golombek, Milner-Barry and C.H.O'D. Alexander (who once defeated erstwhile World Champion Mikhail Moiseyevich Botvinnik in a celebrated game), withdrew from the tournament and returned to England in an unarmed vessel. They were later invited to join the code breakers at Bletchley Park, England. Milner-Barry became head of this vast intelligence, program, and Alexander became his assistant.
Churchill referred to the Bletchley group as “the geese who laid the golden eggs, but did not cackle.” After the war, Milner-Barry became British chancellor of the exchequer.
