Dinner - Speaker-intro-Andrew McC is Mary Sherrard on Bletchley Park-Fellowship-Nigel W+Ricky A

All the papers and records associated with Bletchley Park, the secret centre set up to crack the Enigma code, were destroyed at the end of World War II under orders from Churchill. Consequently, we have only the memories of those who worked there to tell us what it was like and how they cracked the code.

Duns Rotary were treated to a detailed account of life in Bletchley Park, by Mary Sherrard whose memory has not dimmed with time.

In a fascinating discourse the Club heard about the construction of the “bombe”, a machine built by Alan Turing, the master code-breaker, and operated by the WRENs – Women’s Royal Naval Service – of which Mary was a member.

Over 2000 WRENs were used to operate the “bombes” in several outstations including Eastcote where Mary was later stationed. At the peak over 200 “bombes” were operating and there is no doubt that the intelligence received shortened the war significantly.

Mary tales about the intrigue – Hitler was never to know that the codes had been cracked and was led to believe that the information always came from other sources, the tears and the laughter were all part of life at Bletchley and its outstations.

Secrecy was, of course, paramount and it was only in 2009 that Mary received her “Bletchley Park Badge” and is now able to talk about this most important time in our history and about the people involved that Churchill referred to as “the geese that laid the golden eggs but never cackled”.