Government Code & Cypher School (and a hidden message)

During World War I the British Army and Royal Navy both had separate intelligence agencies. Military Intelligence 1b, MI1(b) and Naval Intelligence Department 25, NID25, respectively. NID25 was initially known as Room 40, or 40 O.B., with O.B. referring to 'old building'. 

Following the conclusion of World War I the Cabinet's Secret Service Committee recommended that a peacetime codebreaking agency should be created. Lord Curzon, chairman of the Cabinet's Secret Service Committee, tasked Hugh Sinclair, Director of Naval Intelligence, with creating the new department.

Hugh Sinclair merged staff from NID25 with MI1(b), with the new agency consisting of between 25-30 officers, with roughly the same amount of clerical staff. Victor Forbes, of the Foreign Office, chose the cover-name 'Government Code & Cypher School (GC&CS).

The Government Code & Cypher School moved into Watergate House, Adelphi, with the Admiralty's Alastair Denniston, previously an NID25 officer, as its operational head. 

Its public directive was "to advise as to the security of codes and cyphers used by all Government departments and to assist in their provision". However, it also had a secret directive: "study the methods of cypher communications used by foreign powers".

Although officially formed on November 1, 1919, the Government Code & Cypher School produced its first decryption on October 19, 1919.

In 1921 the offices moved to the Broadway Buildings, opposite St James's Park, in the same building as the SIS, and came under the supervision of Hugh Sinclair. At the time Hugh Sinclair was Chief of SIS and Director of GC&CS.

On February 14, 2019, HM Queen Elizabeth II unveiled a City of Westminster plaque to mark the centenary of GCHQ.

However, keeping with the codebreaking, communications and cypher work of GCHQ, the plaque contains a hidden message, which most people don't even realise. 

Can you uncover the hidden message?

If you can't figure it out, there is a clue below. 

Various characters, on the plaque, have a dot or dash beneath them. 

If you find them all it reveals the message... 

Highlight the space between the quotation marks, below, to uncover the answer.

"1 HUNDRED YEARS"

So, did you work it out, or did you cheat?

Ghosts, Hauntings, Murders and Superstitions

Below are some of the more unknown hauntings and murders of London. 

There are some gruesome details, below, so only read on... if you dare!

Downing Street

This street is said to be haunted by the ghost of Spencer Perceval, who was shot dead outside the Palace of Westminster on May 11, 1812. He is the only British Prime Minister to have been assassinated... so far.

Ministry of Defence

This building is haunted by the ghost of a headless lady. The hooded figure of a lady was stopped by a Policeman, who asked, "what are you doing in a Government building?" She pulled back her hood to reveal an empty space where her head should have been.

Charing Cross railway station

It was here that a rather grisly murder was discovered, on May 10, 1927. Porters reported a dreadful smell coming from a trunk that had been deposited in the left-luggage office, four days earlier. When the Police opened the trunk they discovered the body of a woman, who had been hacked into five pieces, with each piece then wrapped in brown paper. The killer was caught, tried and then executed at Pentonville Prison on August 12, 1927. The case became known as the 'Charing Cross Trunk Murder'.

Adelphi Theatre

On December 16, 1897, the actor William Terriss was stabbed to death, outside the stage door, by Richard Prince, an actor that Terriss had had dismissed from the Play. He died in the arms of his leading lady and his last words were reported to be... "I shall return." His ghost has been seen outside the stage door and within the theatre, where he has been seen knocking on dressing room doors. His ghost has also been seen at Covent Garden underground station.

Savoy Hotel

This is a very superstitious hotel where there is no room thirteen. Also, if you are in a group of thirteen a statue of a cat, called 'Kaspar', is placed on your table to be your fourteenth 'guest'. 'Kaspar' is a two-foot high model of a cat, cut from a single piece of London Plane. Plus, if you die, while staying at the Savoy Hotel, they will pay for your funeral.

Theatre Royal, Drury Lane

The theatre's most famous ghost is the 'Man in Grey'. Unlike many ghosts that appear during the hours of darkness, this apparition appears during anytime of the day. Plus, instead of solitary accounts of sightings, entire casts have witnessed his appearance. He is usually seen in the upper circle, before he makes his way down the aisle and disappears into a wall.