After news of the death of Margaret Betts, Gwilym Hughes writes about the memories of his 98-year-old mother, Joan, one of the few surviving codebreakersYou reported on the death at the age of 99 of one of the last surviving female Bletchley Park codebreakers, Margaret Betts (6 September). My mother, Joan Hughes (née Williams), now still a lively 98-year-old, also served at Bletchley Park after enlisting in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) aged 18.Joan was a scholarship girl at Blackburne House in Liverpool and, after her enlistment interview, she was held for higher-level clearance in Leeds for two weeks while all the other recruits were allocated elsewhere. On heading to Bletchley Park and her billet at Woburn Abbey, she thought it might be the seaside, being near “Sandy, Bedfordshire”. Continue reading...
Thursday 21 September 2023
theguardian - 6 days ago
My mother still has stories to tell about Bletchley Park | Letter
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