E35 - The Road to Bletchley Park

June 2015

This month’s episode provides a peek at a major new exhibition at Bletchley Park, about codebreaking during World War One. The roots of Bletchley Park’s codebreaking success in World War Two can be clearly traced back to WW1, when several of the key figures of the Government Code and Cypher School were already engaged in the business of snooping into the enemy’s communications. The Road to Bletchley Park traces the roots of this codebreaking powerhouse back one hundred years. The exhibition is now open and will be formally launched soon.

Also in this episode, steep yourself in vintage style at the 1940s Boutique, as this most glamorous of days out makes a welcome return next month. We go back to the first Boutique day last year, meeting a mother and two daughters whose mother and grandmother had worked at Bletchley Park. They had a heartbreaking story to tell about the real cost of keeping the details of her work secret from her family.

And we finish with a real treat all the way from Toronto, joining one woman’s quest to find out more about her mother, a Canadian Wren who died when she was only ten. Anne Hereford worked in the Naval Section at Bletchley Park in the last year of the war. When she was being shipped home, she was briefly interviewed by a legendary war correspondent. That recording now means the world to her daughter, May, who lives in Ottawa. Hear what happened when May tracked down a woman who worked with her mother at Bletchley Park. Thanks to CBC for letting us share that documentary from The Current.

Picture: ©shaunarmstrong/mubsta.com

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