Oliver Strachey

Oliver Strachey CBE (3 November 1874 – 14 May 1960), a British civil servant in the Foreign Office, was a cryptographer from World War I to World War II.

Strachey was a son of Lt-Gen Sir Richard Strachey and Lady (Jane) Strachey, and a brother of the writer Lytton Strachey. He was educated at Eton College and attended Balliol College, Oxford for one term (Hilary 1893). His parents sent him on a tour around the world with Robert Bridges. Then he studied the piano in Vienna under Theodor Leschetizky. While there he attended the funeral of Johannes Brahms in 1897. His playing was of a certain standard, but not up to concert performance, so he returned to England and joined the Foreign Office.

His first marriage, in 1900, to Ruby Julia Mayer produced one daughter, Julia Strachey, and ended in divorce.

In 1911, he married Rachel Conn (Ray) Costelloe (1887–1940). They had two children, Barbara (born 1912) and Christopher (born 1916). Christopher Strachey later became a pioneer in the development of computers and computer languages. Barbara Strachey became a writer.

While at the Foreign Office, he engaged in work on the East Indian Railway and historical research. He co-authored with his wife Ray a work on Keigwin's Rebellion (1683–84), an episode in the history of Bombay; it was published in 1916.

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