Galway historian and author Jackie Ui Chionna has been shortlisted for the esteemed Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography 2024 award for her book Queen of Codes, on the extraordinary life of Emily Anderson.
Her work on the life of Ms Anderson has been widely received and appreciated for its comprehensive telling of a remarkable story, which was one of Galway’s best kept secrets.
Ms Ui Chionna’s work detailed the double life led by a quiet, well brought up girl, who became the first and youngest professor of German at Galway University, only to abruptly resign her post to accept a challenge from the British Secret Service to enter the strange world of silently listening to the enemy’s conversations.
Emily Anderson, born on St Patrick’s Day 1891, the daughter of the president of Queen’s College, Galway, Alexander Anderson and his wife Emily Gertrude (nee Binns ). She had a surprisingly liberal education at a time when middle-class girls were just taught enough to equip them with the necessities for marriage and socialising.
Emily and her two sisters, and their brother, were home schooled by a Swiss tutor who ensured the children were proficient in French and German, and the piano. Their mother was a committed suffragist supporting the cause that women should have the vote.
Her daughters, Emily and Elsie, accompanied her to meetings. These could be lively affairs. In the summer 1911 Christabel Pankhurst, a radical socialist, addressed a crowded Galway Town Hall.
As a student at her father’s university, Emily excelled at French and German receiving first class honours, ‘with special distinction’. She continued her studies at Berlin University and at Marburg, and spent two years teaching languages at a girl’s college in Barbados. At the outbreak of World War I, she returned to University College Galway, where at the young age of 26 years, she was appointed its first professor of German.
In the meantime her brother Alexander, who had joined the Connaught Rangers, changed to the Royal Flying Corps, only to have been shot down and taken prisoner.
Somehow, at this worrying time in the Anderson household, and only months after Emily was appointed professor of German, she was approached (probably by an acquaintance at Cambridge ), and asked would she help the newly established codebreaking bureau at St Omer which was contributing vital intelligence for the British and French military.
Emily resigned her post at Galway University and went to France immediately, joining a group of largely bright, intelligent women, providing speedy and accurate interpretations of diplomatic and military messages which proved invaluable in bringing the war to a conclusion.
Back in London, Emily’s quite exceptional skills as a codebreaker had been noticed by her superiors. It was now clear that a new kind of war was emerging. It was of inestimable value to be able to read secret messages relayed in code among enemy planners, and diplomats.
The five books shortlisted for the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography are:
Deborah E. Lipstadt, Golda Meir: Israel’s Matriarch (Yale )
Kal Raustiala, The Absolutely Indispensable Man: Ralph Bunche, the United Nations, and the Fight to End Empire (OUP )
M.W. Rowe, J.L. Austin: Philosopher and D-Day Intelligence Officer (OUP )
Jackie Uí Chionna, Queen of Codes: The Secret Life of Emily Anderson, Britain’s Greatest Female Code Breaker (Headline )
Jackie Wullschläger, Monet: The Restless Vision (Allen Lane, Penguin )
It is now twenty-one years since Peter Soros, Patron, and Flora Fraser, Chair, founded the annual Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography in 2003, in affectionate memory of Flora’s grandmother.
The prize is awarded to a historical biography which, like Elizabeth Longford’s own work, combines scholarship and narrative drive. Judged by historians and historical biographers, it remains the only literary prize in the UK awarded for historical biography. The roll-call of distinguished Winners 2003-2023 can be found at elhb.uk/winners, and the ELHB 2024 Winner will be announced at Flora’s home on Wednesday 12 June 2024.
