Emily Anderson OBE (March 1891 – October 1962) was an Irish scholar of German, music historian and cryptanalyst for the British Foreign Office for almost 30 years.

Anderson was born in Galway, Ireland, the daughter of physicist Alexander Anderson, a Presbyterian from Coleraine. Alexander Anderson became president of Queens College Galway (QCG) in 1899.[1]

She was educated privately and won the Browne Scholarship in 1909 at QCG, where she received a B.A. in 1911.[1] She displayed a strong interest in the suffragette movement in Galway. After further study at universities in Berlin and Marburg, she taught for two years at Queen's College, Barbados.[1] She then returned in 1917 to Galway where she was appointed the first Professor of German at University College Galway.[2]

Anderson resigned from her position in 1920. She moved to London and immediately joined the Foreign Office, where she worked as a cryptanalyst until her retirement.[3] Whilst lodging with the family of Patricia Bartley, Anderson recruited her to work at the Government Code and Cypher School (the forerunner of GCHQ). Between 1940 and 1943 Anderson was seconded to the War Office and posted to Cairo: she was appointed OBE for the work she carried out in the Middle East.[4] She retired from the Foreign Office in 1951.[1]

In April 2023 Dr Jackie Uí Chionna, a historian at the University of Galway (NUI), published her biography of Anderson: Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain's Greatest Female Code Breaker,[5] revealing that Anderson had worked in British intelligence for thirty years.[6]

In 1923 Anderson published a translation of Benedetto Croce's book on Goethe. She edited and translated The Letters of Mozart and His Family, which was published in 1938.[2] Her Letters of Beethoven was published in 1961. West Germany awarded Anderson the Order of Merit (Officer's Cross First Class) for her work on Beethoven.[7]

She died at Hampstead, London in October 1962.

The Royal Philharmonic Society awards the annual Emily Anderson Prize to young violinists in Anderson's honour.[2]

NUI Galway has named their concert hall the Emily Anderson Concert Hall in her memory. Music for Galway, in conjunction with NUI Galway, holds an annual concert in her honour.[2]

See also

Sources

  • Obituary, The Times, Monday, 29 October 1962; pg. 12; Issue 55534; col F
  • On the "Western Outpost":Local Government and Women's Suffrage in County Galway, 1898-1918, Mary Clancy, pp. 557–587, in "Galway:History and Society", 1996
  • Translated Penguin Book - at Penguin First Editions reference site of early first edition Penguin Books.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "The Lives of Emily Anderson: Galway professor, music historian, and British intelligence officer". www.mooreinstitute.ie. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Ceremony to Mark Naming of Emily Anderson Concert Hall at NUI Galway". NUI Galway News. 14 February 2017. Retrieved 22 March 2017.
  3. ↑ "Uncovering the hidden history of codebreaker Emily Anderson". 3 May 2023. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  4. ↑ "GCHQ: Emily Anderson". Retrieved 15 May 2023.
  5. ↑ Uí Chionna, Jackie (13 April 2023). Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain's Greatest Female Code Breaker. Headline Publishing. ISBN 9781472295477. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
  6. ↑ "Queen of Codes". 28 November 2022 – via www.headline.co.uk.
  7. ↑ "Memorial concert celebrates the impact one astonishing Galwegian had on the music world". www.galwaydaily.com. 18 March 2019. Retrieved 15 October 2020.
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