<
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/06/she-played-it-down-bletchley-park-codebreaker-dies-at-99>
"One of the last surviving female Bletchley Park codebreakers, who worked
helping to decipher enemy communications during the second world war, has died
aged 99.
Margaret Betts, of Ipswich, Suffolk, was 19 when she was headhunted by “men
from the ministry”, having performed well at school, her son Jonathan Betts,
68, said.
He said she agreed to help, explaining: “She had recently lost her brother
because his ship had been sunk by a German U-boat.
“It was absolutely tragic, he had just married a few weeks before, the whole
family was in terrible shock and desperate to do something, to do their bit.
She was inspired by this and said ‘absolutely, any way I can help I will’.
“She wasn’t told what it was, she was just told it would be highly secret work
and that eventually she would be told what it was but meanwhile she was to pack
her bags and go to a clearing house in north London.”
He said that she was headhunted in 1942. After a selection process she started
work codebreaking in the summer of 1943 and worked through until Victory over
Japan (VJ) Day in 1945."
RIP,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
