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Brian Tovey

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Sir Brian Tovey
KCMG
Director of GCHQ
In office
1978–1983
Preceded bySir Arthur Bonsall
Succeeded bySir Peter Marychurch
Personal details
Born
Brian John Maynard Tovey

15 April 1926
Died23 December 2015(2015-12-23) (aged 89)
Children4
Alma materSt Edmund Hall, Oxford
School of Oriental and African Studies

Sir Brian John Maynard Tovey KCMG (15 April 1926 – 23 December 2015) was a British intelligence analyst who was director of the British signals intelligence agency, GCHQ, a post he held from 1978 to 1983.

Career

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Born in London, Tovey was educated at St Edward's School, Oxford, St Edmund Hall, Oxford and the School of Oriental and African Studies,[1] where he studied modern Chinese. After national service in the Royal Navy, Tovey joined GCHQ in 1950. He was thus the first GCHQ director not to have worked at Bletchley Park. He was knighted in 1980.[2]

Tovey's tenure as director at GCHQ was not an easy one: industrial action in 1981 led later to the banning of trades unions from GCHQ.[3] The decision was also taken to inaugurate the controversial Zircon satellite project.[4]

Following his retirement from GCHQ, Tovey became a consultant advising firms including Plessey[5] on dealing with Government departments. He served during this time as the chair of the Joint Electronics and Telecommunications Security Export Control Committee (JETSECC) of the Federation of the Electronics Industry.[6] Later he was the founding chairman of the UK Mind Sports Olympiad,[7] and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Learning Skills Foundation[1] and Trustee of the Naval and Military Club.[8]

Tovey maintained an interest in Italian art of the 13th to 17th centuries. He worked on a biography of the life and times of Filippo Baldinucci.[1] It is alleged that while he was Director of GCHQ, Tovey shared this interest with the head of the French SDECE, Alexandre de Marenches, and as a result GCHQ gained valuable intelligence on the war in Afghanistan.[9]

Personal life

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Tovey was married four times.[10] In 1949, he married Elizabeth Christopher.[11] They had four children; three daughters and a son.[11] One of his daughters is Helen Fulton, Professor of Medieval Literature.[12] They divorced in 1959.[13] He married twice more, in 1961 and 1973, with both marriages ending in divorce.[11] In 1989, he married Mary Lane; she survived him.[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Learning Skills foundation profile". Archived from the original on 22 January 2011. Retrieved 1 August 2008.
  2. ^ "No. 48041". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 1979. p. 2.
  3. ^ Union crusade rewarded as Cook lifts GCHQ ban The Independent, 16 May 1997
  4. ^ Federation of American Scientists: For UK Eyes Alpha
  5. ^ Hansard 22 March 1984
  6. ^ See, for example, " The Stationery Office Archived June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ Britain's Mind Games end in debt and tears[dead link] The Independent, 13 March 2001
  8. ^ "Obituary: Sir Brian Tovey". The Telegraph. 28 January 2016. Retrieved 31 October 2021.
  9. ^ John K. Cooley, Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism, Pluto Press, 1999
  10. ^ Anne Keleny. "Sir Brian Tovey: Director of GCHQ". The Independent. Archived from the original on 3 June 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
  11. ^ a b c "Sir Brian Tovey". The Times. 2 January 2016. Archived from the original on 3 June 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
  12. ^ "Fulton, Prof. Helen Elizabeth, (born 3 June 1952), Professor of Medieval Literature, University of Bristol, since 2015". Who's Who 2025. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on 3 June 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
  13. ^ "Obituary: Former head of GCHQ Sir Brian Tovey became art history lecturer and author". Oxford Mail. 7 January 2016. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
  14. ^ "Sir Brian Tovey - obituary". The Telegraph. 28 January 2016. Archived from the original on 3 June 2025. Retrieved 3 June 2025.
Government offices
Preceded by Director of GCHQ
1978–1983 		Succeeded by


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