Special medal marks more than eight decades of engineering excellence at HMGCC

A prestigious medal has been presented to HMGCC, honouring the work of thousands of engineers and technologists over the course of its 86-year history.

During an awards ceremony last night, our CEO George Williamson accepted the President’s Special Medal for Engineering in the Service of Society from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng).

The medal was presented by the Academy’s President, Professor Sir Jim McDonald in front of an audience made up of senior representatives from the engineering, technology and government sectors.

HMGCC was founded in 1938 as a specialist organisation for overseas wireless communications. Our remit was to set up a secure communications capability with overseas outposts in the event of war with Germany.

The legendary mathematician Alan Turing lived and worked at our Hanslope Park base in the latter part of the war – creating a new encryption device called Delilah and testing it out for visitors by playing a record of Churchill’s speeches through it.

Today, as the home of national security engineering, HMGCC works on the latest technological challenges, from cyber security and AI to creating tech to help with intelligence gathering or secure communications in often dangerous or hostile locations.

George Williamson, CEO of HMGCC, said: “We, at HMGCC, feel very grateful to have received this honour from the Royal Academy. Thousands of engineers and technologists have worked at HMGCC since its foundation in 1938, contributing amazing feats of invention for national security.

"Over the decades and, for obvious reasons, we have always had to keep silent about our important work in keeping the country safe. But this medal is an important public acknowledgement of the incredible innovators we have at HMGCC. I’m so proud of this work and I’m delighted that their contribution to society has been recognised with such a special award.”

Professor Sir Jim McDonald GBE FREng FRSE, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, said: “The President’s Special Awards are made to celebrate only the most unusual achievement of excellence in engineering – indeed, the last time we presented them was during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“HMGCC’s work has been undertaken under the tightest levels of secrecy for eight decades. Indeed, it is a mark of its success that so few of us outside the national security community really knew what it did and most of its history and work remains secret. This award recognises the excellence of HMGCC’s engineers – past, present and future – whose work may never otherwise be publicly acknowledged.”