Bletchley Park

December 2020  At the end of each year we like to focus on the important work that our Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne and his team of staff and volunteers carry out. As with so many around the world, COVID-19 has had a huge effect on the work of Jonathan’s team in 2020. In this episode we catch-up with Jonathan for an update on the Oral History Project and he shares four more highlights from our archive of 550 interviews. Gwen Adsley was a civilian working in the Communications Section from 1942. Food, or the lack of it, is an abiding memory for her so being able to get an unexpected loaf of bread was a real pleasure.  Trixie Davison wanted to do her bit after the Blitz on London and become a Radar Operator so left her Civil Service job and joined the ATS. A problem with her eyesight meant she was transferred to work at Kedleston Hall and Forest Moor Y stations as an intercept operator. Roy Maycock was 6 years old on the day that war was declared and living in what was then the village of Bletchley. During the war his family had both children evacuated from London and Bletchley Park staff billeted on them. Molly Morgan wanted to serve her country, so defying her father’s wishes, resigned from her reserved occupation at The Bank of England and joined the WRNS. Instead of a posting by the sea she was sent to Buckinghamshire to work in the Naval Section alongside Frank Birch.  We would like to wish all our listeners a safe and Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year for 2021.  Image courtesy of Gwen Adsley

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

November 2020 
For the first time since January 2020 the podcast team were able to be physically in the same room together, even if socially distanced. So to mark this return we decided to ask our listeners on social media for their questions about Bletchley Park. 
In this, the first of these shows, Exhibitions Manager Erica Munro, Research Historian Dr David Kenyon, Research Officer Dr Thomas Cheetham and podcast producer Mark Cotton, will hopefully answer those questions and maybe do a bit of myth busting along the way.
Many thanks to our listeners and followers for setting us these challenges.
Special thanks, as always, go to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.
Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020
#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

October 2020  For over 8 years the podcast has been privileged to receive help and support from the modern day version of the wartime Government Code and Cypher School, GCHQ, both as an organisation and from their Departmental Historian.  Previous listeners will know that GCHQ has a new Historian and in Podcast Episode 98, we had the honour of being able to exclusively reveal his identity when we met him at the GCHQ Centenary celebrations at the National Memorial Arboretum in November 2019.  We promised then that we’d catch up with him again, and this month we’re doing just that. Podcast producer Mark Cotton sat down with Dr David Abrutat, the recently avowed Departmental Historian at GCHQ, to find out about his life, his service and what he has planned for his “dream job”.  Image: ©GCHQ #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #GCHQ,

September 2020  This is the last of three special episodes to mark what would have been our Annual Veterans Reunion.  It was due to COVID-19 restrictions and with huge regret that Bletchley Park Trust had to take the difficult decision not to hold this year’s reunion on-site. But here at the podcast we can still celebrate our Veterans with these special episodes. At a reunion we like to capture as many Veterans stories as we can, but we also always remember that it is their special day and we try not to interrupt it too much for them. Some chats may just be a quick hello and how are you and some might end up with a short interview. But for some Veterans, it might be the first time they have been asked to talk about their vital war work and we are always honoured to be on hand to save their story for future generations.  In this, the last of these special episodes, we’re bringing you nearly 80 minutes from another 12 of our amazing Veterans, including a few of those longer interviews. Featured in this episode, in order of appearance are: Doris MossMollie BrewsterPamela ForbesBetty WebbElizabeth DaviesMarigold Angela Bostock-WilsonDiana TylerMargaret ThomasBartrum RobinsonEdna GarbuttPauline LeeTom Howie We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Veterans of Bletchley Park and its Outstations, for their service. Special thanks to Katherine Lynch, Sarah Langston and Kerry Howard.  Image: ©Will Amlot for the Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

September 2020  As we explained in the last show, due to COVID-19 restrictions and with huge regret, Bletchley Park Trust had to take the difficult decision not to host our Annual Veterans Reunion onsite this year. To continue to mark what would have been this year’s reunion, this is the second of three special episodes we will be bringing you this month, to still pay tribute to our Veterans. Reunion is always the busiest day of the year for the podcast, catching up with old friends & rushing around trying to make sure that we can record as many Veterans as we can but it hasn’t just been our original co-host Katherine Lynch and producer Mark Cotton. We have also had help from a group of people we like to call our roving reporters. They are friends of the podcast who kindly give their time to help us allow the Veterans’, to tell their stories, in their own voices.  We want to thank everyone who has helped us at each reunion since 2012 but especially those featured in this episode, Sarah Langston, Kerry Howard, Astrid Specht, Helen Legh and of course Katherine Lynch. The Veterans featured in this episode, in order of appearance are: Flo ColeCicely AndersonMimi GallileeKay WingateNancy ClarkGeoffrey PidgeonPat DaviesChristine BroseJoan SmeatonMary HealEric Dodd We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Veterans of Bletchley Park and its Outstations, for their service. Image: ©Will Amlot for the Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

September 2020 
Each year, to mark the arrival of the Codebreakers to their war station in 1939, we hold our Veterans Reunion. 
This is the highlight of our calendar year, and a really special occasion for all involved. Veterans can meet up with friends old and new and share stories of their vital and once top-secret wartime work. These events have taken on even more meaning in the past few years, for the Veterans, their families, and all those who work for Bletchley Park Trust today.
It is with huge regret that, due to COVID-19 restrictions, Bletchley Park Trust has taken the difficult decision not to host our Reunion onsite this year.
To mark what would have been this year’s reunion, this is the first of three special episodes we will be bringing you this month, not just the highlights of the last 8 years that the Podcast has attended but also from the very first Reunion in 1991, the one that started the campaign to Save Bletchley Park.
The Veterans featured in this episode, in order of appearance are:
Joan Clarke
Derek Taunt
Raymond Goodman
Rosamond Twinn
Rosemary Davidson
Peter Twinn
Rolf Noskwith
Betty Webb
Mary Watkins
Joyce Bigoni
Stanley Clegg
Eric Hume
Jeff Hoare
Fred Terretta
Audrey Hodges
Jane Fawcett

We would like to take this opportunity to thank the Veterans of Bletchley Park and its Outstations, for their service.
Special thanks to Katherine Lynch, Sarah Langston and Mr Ben Thomson.  
Image: ©Will Amlot for the Bletchley Park Trust 2020
#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

August 2020
Nearly 3 months after VE Day, the war against Japan still continued. Its end would be drawn out over 6 weeks between the Potsdam Declaration in July and the final signing of the surrender on-board the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay on September the 2nd. 
During those weeks the world saw the use of a new weapon, the atom bomb and both Hiroshima and Nagasaki would be totally destroyed before World War Two would finally come to an end.
To commemorate VJ Day we present this special It Happened Here episode. Using archive recordings, a recreation of the memoir of Eric Norris and interviews with our Veterans from both our official Oral History Project and 8 years of podcasts, we hope to take you back to those momentous weeks in 1945.
10 of our Veterans will share their memories, both happy and sometimes poignant, of the beginning of the Atomic Age, the end of the war, VJ Day and looking forward to the rest of their lives. Featured in order of appearance are:
Sheila Willson
Dennis Gilley
Dr Michael Loewe
Lady Marion Body
Joyce Bogoni
Joan Smeaton
Dennis Underwood
Betty Webb
Gwendoline Page
Margaret Thomas
We would like to take this opportunity to thank not just the Veterans of Bletchley Park and its Outstations, but all Veterans, for their service. 
Very special thanks go to Mr Ben Thomson for voicing our archival documents.
Image: Wrens in London on VJ Day. With grateful thanks to Mrs Joan Smeaton.
#BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #BletchleyParkVJDay75, #VJDay75

July 2020  As COVID-19 struck we decided to start releasing these extra episodes to give you our listeners something extra each week while you were in lockdown. We are glad we could share so many previously unheard recordings that we just hadn’t been able to before and hopefully these shows have helped you through these extraordinary times, if even in a small way.  Over the next few episodes we shall start to return to our more normal podcast episodes and eventually our It Happen Here shows too. It seems only fitting that as our last Intelligence Insight we look at how Bletchley Park has managed to finally reopen to the public. It’s been a long journey, which is still not over, but who better to hear from than some of our paid and volunteer staff who have made it happen. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma,

July 2020  Bletchley Park is an independent charity and so we rely on the ticket sales of our visitors for 95% of our operating costs, but another way to support the museum is to become a Friend of Bletchley Park.  As a friend of Bletchley Park you not only get our normal free unlimited year-round access to our heritage site and museum, but a range of other benefits including exclusive events, previews and discounts … all while knowing you are helping us to keep telling the story of the vital war winning work carried out by the men and women of The Government Code and Cypher School during WW2. So in this episode we take you back to early 2018 and to one of those exclusive Friends talks from our very own Research Historian Dr David Kenyon. The Y Service was the organisation responsible for intercepting enemy wireless and radio communications with Y Stations based around the world. In his talk David focused on a smaller part of this organisation, the Coastal Y Service.  In the Q&A that follows his talk, who better to help him than Pat Davies who from 1942 – 1945 was one of those Intercept Operators for the Royal Navy. Post war Pat had an astonishing career as a journalist, documentary maker and television producer. In June 2019 the French Government awarded her the Legion d'honneur. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma,

July 2020  In this episode we are staying with Dermot Turing & his wider family. First we go back to a very cold day in March 2015 when more than twenty members of Alan Turing’s family gathered at Bletchley Park to pay tribute to their famous ancestor. The Imitation Game had been released only a few months earlier, so to have so many Turing’s in one place, at the same time, meant the worlds press turned up too & so the perfect opportunity for Dermot to launch the fundraising campaign for the restoration of Hut 11a.  Then we will return to Hut 11a exactly 3 years later & the official opening of The Bombe Breakthrough. In the very building that housed the Bombe Machines during World War Two the exhibition tells the entire story for the first time. From the earliest work by Polish Codebreakers using mathematics & machines, through Alan Turing & Gordon Welchman’s famous invention, to finally producing war winning intelligence for the Allies. You will hear from the people involved with creating the exhibition, VIP’s & guests, including some of our specially invited Veteran’s.     * Producers Note *Bletchley Park will be safely reopening to visitors on Saturday the 4th of July. All visitors must pre-book online, including Friends or Annual Season Pass holders. Please head to the Bletchley Park website for the latest information. Image: ©Bletchley Park Trust 2020 #BPark, #WW2, #BletchleyPark, #Enigma, @PolishEmbassyUK