Telegraphic Code - The Salvation Army and Cryptography

"Oh that we had a Code! a Code! a Code !!!!!" pleaded General William Booth from Johannesburg on the first of September, 1908.

Work on a telegraphic code must have commenced soon afterwards for housed in the library of The Salvation Army International Heritage Centre are five maroon hardback volumes of 'General Telegraphic Code', dating from 1910 to 1946.

At the top left and right of each page the range of both code words and English words for that page is given. Beneath are two columns: on the left are the code words and on the right their respective meanings; both are in bold typeface and arranged alphabetically.

Phrases containing words follow each word and are in normal typeface. For example, ‘Gastritis' in code is ‘hajur' and both are in bold. Beneath that are two sentences incorporating that word: ‘Regret to inform you that __ has been promoted to Glory by gastritis', for which the code word is ‘hajvy', and ‘Regret to inform you that __ is very seriously ill with gastritis, for which the codeword is ‘hajwa'.

The supplementary booklet 'Staff Officers' Names', revised to June, 1923, contains an alphabetical list of officers' names, all of which begin with 'O'. So Commissioner David Lamb is 'oboxy', Colonel Alfred Cunningham, 'ognat' and Major Albert Scotney, 'osdym'.

In addition to these officially published code books, we also possess an intriguing small, black, hand-written notebook of 'Code Cyphers for Colonel E. Pallant's use only' which dates from the late 1950s.

Some of the code names seem rather amusing: Brigadier J. Bordas was allocated the code name 'Chewinggum', replacing an earlier 'Candy'.  And Lt.-Col. Chang, Oon-Yong was 'Confetti', replacing an earlier 'Spaghetti'.

Vegetables and fruits also figure: Lieutenant-Colonel H. Eliasen was 'Spinach' and Colonel Scotney was 'Lettuce', though Lieutenant-Colonel L. Evenden's 'Lemonade' replaced the earlier 'Sprout'. Colonel G. Marshall was 'Gooseberry' and Colonel Albert Mingay, 'Grapefruit'. Lieutenant-Colonel B. Vinti, however, has had 'Whortleberry' replaced by 'Trifle'.

History