Paul Cort-Wright - Obituary

Web Manager
Apr 18
3 min read

In November 2023, Paul Cort-Wright and a leadership group from the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB) gathered at the National Radio Centre in Bletchley Park to be discretely presented with a framed letter signed by the Chiefs of each of the three UK intelligence agencies - GCHQ, MI5 and SIS, officially recognising the vital service of the RSGB for their important work during the Second World War in recruiting radio amateurs into the Radio Security Service (RSS).

Paul with the framed and signed letter from all three Agency heads (GCHQ, MI5 and SIS) thanking the RSGB for its wartime service with supporting the Radio Security Service (RSS)

The Radio Society of Great Britain published both the letter and background in their January 2024 edition of their Radcom journal, which was sent to their membership. It was the culmination of a story that dates back fifty years when Paul found out about of radio amateurs (known as Voluntary Interceptors or VIs) during the Second World War who had volunteered to work with the Radio Security Service from their homes to secretly listen into and record German intelligence services radio transmissions to feed critical intelligence back to the Government Code & Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park.

In 1978 the BBC commissioned Paul to make a film about these VIs and that started him on a life ambition to get these radio amateurs official recognition. After detailed research Paul aired the 1979 BBC East documentary programme called ‘The Secret Listeners’. The film was the first insight into the secretive world of the Radio Security Service and the role they played during the war. His legacy is their story told.

Paul Cort-Wright was born on the 11 May 1946 and went on to attend Great Yarmouth Grammar School in his early years before opening up a door to a 61 year career in media/broadcasting. It began at the BBC training centre in Wood Norton aged just 18 years old, the corporation became literally his life’s work.

Paul got heavily involved in the early days of outside broadcast engineering, developing wireless video systems for mobile cameras to be used for live events like Horse racing. Pioneering and challenging technology for the time. The BBC was of course a national organisation and Paul got involved in departments and sites across the country, but eventually he moved to Norwich where he found his permanent base at All Saints Green.

Paul was almost universally known at work by his nickname ‘Chop-Chop’ although nobody seems to be quite sure of the source!

He was an active radio amateur (callsign G3SEM), who loved Morse, and built a lot of his own equipment, sometimes from commercial kits but also scratch-built projects to his own designs, all beautifully constructed, setup and tested using his comprehensive range of test gear. He had built an elaborate radio shack of his own at home, as well as some compact portable equipment which he would often take with him on holiday.

Paul enjoyed getting involved with the Norfolk Amateur Radio Club contest stations around the county, leading by example. Some contests involve operating completely independently from the middle of a field with just a tent, aerials and a generator.

Around five years ago Paul made this substantial Antenna Tuning Unit (ATU) specifically for use with the clubs contest stations. The whole rack was engineered and built by him, having many components laser cut to make a unique piece of equipment to help give the club the best possible performance and chance of success. Paul presented this ATU to the club and in 2020 he received the Norfolk Amateur Radio Clubs Presidents Trophy for this incredible project.