OBITUARY : Lt-Cdr Monty Davenport

17 May 2011

OBITUARY : Lt-Cdr Monty Davenport
---------------------------------

Lieutenant-Commander Monty Davenport, who died on April 14 aged 94, 
crafted crucially important deception plans for naval intelligence during 
the Second World War, notably helping to bamboozle the enemy during the 
landings in North Africa and on D-Day.

In September 1939 Davenport was about to start research in pharmacology 
when he was called up into the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and, on the 
strength of his scientific training, was appointed - alongside other 
volunteers such as Ian Fleming - to reinforce the Naval Intelligence 
Department, under Rear-Admiral ( later Vice-Admiral Sir ) John Godfrey.

Working directly to Paymaster Lieutenant-Commander ( later Captain ) DA 
Wilson in NID section 10, Davenport scrutinised British wireless traffic 
for mistakes in ciphering and coding, in order to estimate the 
possibilities of compromise by the Germans. In just two months Wilson's 
team produced a report which convinced the authorities of the need to 
strengthen the crypto-security of the Fleet.

Davenport was not always trying to prevent communications from being 
intercepted, however, and early in 1940 he took responsibility for 
encrypting messages into a code which it was known the Italians could 
read; the intention was to sap Italian morale by portraying them as a 
liability to their German allies.

In late 1940 Davenport was lent to "Ginger" Boyle, the Earl of Cork 
and Orrery and Admiral of the Fleet, to secure communications networks for 
a defence of the Shetland Islands against a German invasion, then thought 
likely. 

Then, during 1941-42, Davenport instigated a signals deception plan to 
protect convoys in the Mediterranean; this contributed to the successful 
planning and execution of Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North 
Africa. He subsequently served in the headquarters established in Algiers.

He was behind further deception schemes the following year. A typical 
operation was carried out through a combination of faked wireless traffic 
and agent reports, causing both German and Japanese intelligence to 
believe that there were two British aircraft carriers in the Indian Ocean, 
when in fact there were none.

A "deployment" via the South Atlantic of the carrier Indefatigable, which 
was in fact building on the Clyde, was projected to the enemy entirely by 
wireless traffic. After "joining the British East Indies Fleet, the ghost 
carrier "returned" to the Clyde for an imaginary refit, when her identity 
was merged with the real Indefatigable after the actual ship was ready for 
commissioning.

Davenport was promoted lieutenant-commander at the age of 26, and in 1944 
made an important contribution to the success of the Allied deception 
operations ahead of the Normandy landings. In particular, he helped cloak 
the existence of troopships delivering American forces to Britain prior to 
D-Day; the operation was so successful that very few ships and men were 
lost in the Atlantic crossing.

Montague Davenport was born at Teddington on May 26 1916, son of the 
maritime painter and businessman Hayward Davenport. He was educated at 
Sherborne, and studied Pharmacy at Chelsea Polytechnic and at University 
College Hospital, graduating in 1939.

After the war Davenport continued his career in intelligence, as one of 
the British experts sent to Flensburg, Germany, to interrogate their 
German counterparts who had been responsible for decoding British signals.

On demobilisation he joined GCHQ, where he assumed responsibility for the 
security of British government communications. One of his early tasks was 
to vet Sir Winston Churchill's 'History of the Second World War' to ensure 
that the publication in plain language of Churchill's wartime signalled 
messages did not compromise any codes still in use, or any other messages.

During the 1950s he advised various colonial governments on setting up 
their own communications security and, during the planning stage for the 
invasion of Suez in 1956, prepared complex and delicate deceptions; these 
were most probably directed at Britain's own ally in Washington, and in 
all likelihood concerned the timings of the landings. He was appointed OBE 
in 1959..../snip/

-  Monty Davenport married, in 1952, Olive Brabner. She died in 2008,
   and he is survived by their two sons. 


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/naval-obituaries/8517459/Lt-Cdr-Monty-Davenport.html