Nearly 50 members visited the secret wartime code breaking HQ at Bletchley Park on 20th October.  

There were two additional surprises to the day. The mother of our Chairman, Dorcas Cresswell, Mrs. Betty Morgan, who is now an 89 year old lady living quietly in Herefordshire for the last 39 years, was also invited to attend because she had been a code-breaker there from 1941 – 1944.  Yet no one at Bletchley Park knew of her and so they welcomed her with a VIP Reception, presented her with the ‘Freedom of Bletchley Park’, gave her a special badge and she is now in line to receive a National medal.  

In addition to that, everyone was also surprised to find TV cameras and a reporter there, who filmed Betty’s day and parts of it were broadcast that night on BBC ‘Midlands Today’, ‘Points East’ and radio interviews were broadcast throughout the day on BBC Hereford & Worcester Radio.

During an interview with me, she explained some of the most amusing events which happened to her, but she also explained that life was, in fact, anything but glamorous.

Betty found the visit nostalgic, but not necessarily for the right reasons. It brought back painful memories to her.  She said, “I was told to work in a grimy hut, with low ceilings, no windows at all and always a purple light flickering above me.  It was freezing in winter and boiling in summer.”

In the hut was the ‘Bombe’ – an incredible machine made by scientists and engineers led by the legendary Dr. Alan Turing.  This decoded the messages, which were flooding in from all the listening posts.  But for Betty and her colleagues, life was grim.  She added, “The Bombe machine, which had hundreds of metal components, spewed out tiny droplets of oil as the metal discs rotated, which my colleagues and I breathed in all the time. The smell was appalling and the oil continually covered our clothes.”

However, it was all made worthwhile, when she was present the night the code was deciphered, which told of the whereabouts of the notorious battleship, ‘Bismarck’. Within two days, this most feared of German ships was at the bottom of the sea.

Betty and her fellow Wrens worked long shifts, not only deciphering the codes, but also repairing the workings of the Bombes. If any of the tiny metal whiskers touched each other, the Bombe would stop working and the Wrens soon had to become engineers.   They returned to their billets in the nearby town, utterly exhausted, only to start again eight hours later, every day of the week.

All the BDFAS members enjoyed their visit to Bletchley Park enormously, where they also saw the even more complicated Colossus machine, the first electronic computer in the world.  They saw the old huts and cramped conditions as explained by Betty. It was all fascinating.

But we all left with a feeling of awe, humbleness and gratitude having met this wonderful lady, who had been part of a generation to whom we all must feel so grateful and whose efforts saved our country.

This is a BDFAS Visit none of us will ever forget.