The Ryde teacher who eavesdropped on Hitler’s men

At the time, he probably would have said that he was in the army, for it was many years later that men and women like Jim Raggett were allowed to talk about their experiences.

The secrecy of his wartime role was hinted at with his passing in 2013.

The County Press notice included, ‘No flowers. Donations to Bletchley Park Trust.’

A search of the Bletchley ‘Home of the Code Breakers’ website in 2013 gave me no indication of exactly what he did.

That changed recently when James H. Raggett was added to their role of honour as a captain in the Army Intelligence Corp.

His certificate of service is reproduced here courtesy of the Bletchley Park Trust.

Ryde Secondary School, 1965 – Jim Raggett seated bottom, second from left.

Known as the Listening Service, ‘Army Y’ played the vital role of intercepting wireless messages from the Germans, to relay to the codebreakers at Bletchley Park ‘Station X.’

We are familiar now with some of what went on at Station X, through television dramas such as ‘The Bletchley Circle’ and ‘The Imitation Game’ film.

But without men and women like Capt. Raggett, Alan Turing and his team wouldn’t have been able to do what they did ­— to crack the enemy messages and bring the war to an end much earlier.

Eavesdropping in the theatre of war was dangerous work, not least was the risk of getting caught.

After training at Army Y headquarters at Harpenden, Hertfordshire, Jim was posted to NW Europe in 1940 where he stayed until 1944.

He was with No.1 Special Wireless Group, working on intercepts, a log reader (traffic analysis specialist).

That much is known about him and is on record at Bletchley Park Trust.

Yet, as volunteers there say, “while we know a lot more about the work of Bletchley based staff, much of what Army Y individuals did, is still to be revealed.”

The Y Service, tasked with operating wireless interceptions, is the subject of Sinclair McKay’s book, ‘The Listeners of Army Y Stations.’

It describes the immense difficulties of the job. It was, ‘intensely skilled and extremely pressurised. They listened in for every hour of every day. A high degree of concentration was required.’

Young linguists like Jim had to intercept cyphers, accurately transcribe the coded messages from the German Enigma encryption machines and forward on by radio to England.

Get it wrong and people could die. For some the pressure was too much.

The Enigma encryption machine. Picture by Anne Grant.

They heard before anyone at Bletchley, events as they happened or attacks being planned by Germany. Some suffered for years afterwards with what would now be diagnosed as PTSD.

James Henry Raggett’s civilian life, before and after the war, was devoted to teaching.

A university graduate, he was a teacher in Portsmouth from 1939, where he married Margaret Elizabeth Smith in 1940.

When the war ended and ‘demob’ followed, Mr and Mrs Raggett moved to Ryde in 1947, where Jim took a teaching post as head of languages at Ryde County Secondary Modern School.

Elizabeth also joined the teaching staff, herself a graduate of London University. They lived in Great Preston Road.

Jim put his experience of France to peacetime use by escorting exchange school trips.

In 1950 the County Press reported, ‘Mr L. Nicholls of Sandown and Mr J. H. Raggett of Ryde, took 22 children from Newport, Sandown, Cowes and Freshwater schools, to France on holiday’.

In 1954, 25 more boys and girls from Ryde County Secondary went on a week’s visit to Paris, with senior mistress Miss D. Lewis and Mr J. H. Raggett.

Jim was a keen amateur dramatic performer. In 1962 he was praised for his splendid character study as the French lord, in the Wight Vintage Players Company first ever production, Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.

James Henry Raggett Certificate of Service Bletchley Park. Picture courtesy of Bletchley Park Trust.

In 1967 he appeared again with the same performers in Henry the Fourth as nobleman, Westmoreland.

He used his theatrical experience in school productions too. In 1975, the (renamed) Ryde High School ‘scored a hit with a highly entertaining production of Charley’s Aunt Mr J. Raggett and Mrs J. Mazillius were responsible for make-up.’

In July 1976, Jim Raggett put down his chalk, hung up his blackboard duster and retired.

In recognition for their years with the school, Jim and Elizabeth were presented with a set of suitcases by the school governors.

Jim was also a committed Christian and served as vice chairman of the church council of St. John’s Church, Ryde.

In retirement, Mr and Mrs Raggett moved to the Chichester area, where some years later they both passed away.

If anyone can add more information to Capt. James H. Raggett’s ‘listening’ years, Bletchley Park Trust will be pleased to hear about it and bring to an end the enigma of exactly what Jim did.

I too would like to know, and I venture to guess, so would many of the children he taught during his 29 years in Ryde.

How many, like me, remember him not only as a good teacher but with renewed respect now that we know something of his wartime secret?

The Listeners of Army Y Stations book cover.