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SOLVE THE DORABELLA CIPHER
A CHALLENGE FROM THE ELGAR SOCIETY
In August 1895, the Revd Alfred Penny, the Rector of Wolverhampton, married Miss Mary Frances Baker, of Hasfield,
near Gloucester. This was his second marriage, his first wife having died, leaving him with a daughter, Dora, now aged 21.
The new Mrs Powell was a friend of Alice, Mrs Edward Elgar, with whom in former days she had gone fossil-hunting on the
banks of the Severn. In December 1895, Mr and Mrs Elgar went to visit the Pennys in Wolverhampton. The visit was a
success, and Elgar became great friends with the attractive Dora. In 1899 she was to feature as the 10th variation –
Dorabella – in Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma) (op 36), wherein some have seen her youthful and no doubt
charming stammer portrayed. Elgar and Dora shared a love of cycling, kite-flying and association football (it was Dora
who first took Elgar to see Wolves play).
Alice and Edward Elgar visited the Rectory again in July 1897. Dora took Elgar by tram after lunch to Dunstall Park,
Wolverhampton’s racecourse, in time to see three races before going to Boscobel to see the house and oak where King
Charles II hid after the battle of Worcester, and to fly kites in a nearby field.
This is what I call eating one’s cake and having it remarked Elgar as he got in the carriage before being driven to
Boscobel.
After the visit, Elgar wrote Dora what is perhaps a thank you letter.
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The Dorabella cipher
dated July 14, 1897
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It is written in a Code, and is reproduced above. Its curious symbols, possibly inspired by Arabic script, seem
based on the double-arched, cursive E in Elgar’s signature. Now known as the Dorabella cipher, it remains unbroken.
Attempts to solve the cipher by analysis of the frequency distribution of the characters in the message have failed.
Elgar offered a clue in a notebook dating from about 1927, towards the end of his life. He there listed the symbols used
in the cipher matched against the letters of the alphabet. But it doesn’t work when applied to the Dorabella cipher,
which seems to have used a system of double encipherment. To make matters worse, the message may be written in the
whimsical style Elgar often adopted – he referred to Dora’s singing once as warbling wigorously in Worcester wunce
a week.
With the benefit of sponsorship, the Elgar Society is pleased to be able to offer a prize of £1500 for a solution to
the puzzle. Send what you think is the correct solution, with an explanation, to Mrs Helen Petchey, the Hon Secretary,
the Elgar Society, 12 Monkhams Drive, Woodford Green, Essex IG 8 0LQ. If more than one solution is received which is
considered to be correct, it will be the first received which will be awarded the prize. The prize is open for
competition until the end of the year celebrating Elgar’s birthday, namely 2 June 2008.
The correctness of any solution proposed will be decided by a panel chaired by Dr Kevin Jones, formerly Professor of
Music at Kingston University. Dr Jones has written on the cipher and has a special in music in interdisciplinary contexts,
particularly in relation to science and mathematics. The other members of the panel will be Andrew Neill, Chairman of
the Elgar Society and Professor Robert Anderson, Elgar scholar and author of the volume on Elgar in the Master
Musicians series (1993). Their decision will be final and they may decide that the cipher has not been solved. It
will not be possible for them to enter into any correspondence.
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