Reverend Dr John Wintour Baldwin Barns

British Egyptologist and papyrologist. Born, Bristol 1912. Died, Oxford 1974. Studied at University of Bristol, BA 1932, then at Oxford, MA 1942, D. Phil. 1947. Lady Wallis Budge Fellow in Egyptology, University College, Oxford, 1945-53. Lecturer in Papyrology, Oxford, 1953-65. Professor of Egyptology, 1965-74. Ordained 1956. Published mainly on papyrology.

Published a number of books and articles on Egyptology and papyrology, as well as translations of the Coptic gospels (also St Thomas Gospel). Member of the academic team that worked on the deciphering of the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi manuscripts discovered in Egypt in 1945.

JWB Barns served the Military Intelligence at Bletchley Park during the Second World War II, and was employed to crack German signal codes, along with the likes of Alan Turing, the father of Computer Science

This is an extract from website an article by John Richmond called Classics and Intelligence - http://www.classicsireland.com/2001/richmond.html

.... Luftwaffe hand ciphers for tactical messages were handled at first in Bletchley. “The code­break­ing unit at Bletchley, whose job it was to compile the substitution tables, happened to consist of a Professor of Classics from Cambridge, and a [small, be­spectacled] Russian émi­gré [with the German name of E. C. Fetterlein] who spoke English with an appropriate ac­cent”, and said little more than ‘Good morning’ to his colleagues. He wore, and was very proud of, a ring with a large ruby pre­sented to him by Czar Nicholas as one of Imperial Rus­sia's leading cryptanalysts. Their as­sistants, undergraduates selected for their knowledge of German, soon moved to RAF Cheadle, where the results could be used most speedily, and took over all the work (HS 247-248; A 261-262).

Among the many hand ciphers of the German Navy was the ‘Dockyard Key’, which proved to be very valuable. A prominent member of the team that broke it was John Wintour Baldwin Barns, a Corpus Oxford B.A. (1937). In 1947 he graduated D. Phil., took holy orders in 1956, edited many papyri, (Oxyrhynchus, Antinoopolis, Merton) and was Professor of Egyptology from 1965 to his death in 1974 (HS 236, WWW vii).

Collected sermons in the Anglican Church published by his widow on his death.

John Wintour Baldwin Barns, priest and scholar, 1912-1974 (Paperback) by John Wintour Baldwin Barns (Author) Paperback: 62 pages Publisher: [Mrs Barns] (1974) ISBN-10: 0950393703 ISBN-13: 978-0950393704

Extract from the memoirs of Kenneth Barns (another cousin):

My Cousin Jack. He was about a year older than me. Unlike me he was a good scholar at school. He turned after his father - academically clever.

My first memory of him was when he was 4 or 5 years old, but before he went to school.

I was on a visit with my Mum to his home and there he was sitting in an arm chair, arms outstretched reading the daily newspaper! Yes, he really was and was apparently taking it all in, just like a grown man. Aunty Nellie had apparently taught him to read at a very early age.

As he grew up he obtained a scholarship to a local high school and went on to Bristol University. He died at the early age of 61. A newspaper cutting of his obituary said the following:

"Rev. Dr. J.W. Baldwin Barns

Bristol-born Egyptologist the Rev. Dr. John Wintour Baldwin Barns has died aged 61. He was educated at Fairfield School, Bristol and then studied at Bristol University before he went to Oxford in 1932. He won a classical scholarship at his college and went on to study Greek Papyri after being dissuaded from taking up his main interest, Egyptology, because of the poor prospects in the subject. During the war he worked in intelligence, and in 1945 hge achieved his ambition when he was appointed Lady Willis Budge Research Fellow in Egyptology at University College, Oxford. He was ordained a priest in the Church of England in 1956 and became a Professor of Egyptology in 1965. He was a noted expert of Egyptian writings and a master at assembling damaged documents. He leaves a widow."

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._W._B._Barns