bletchley park magazine — issue 2

Bletchley Park Magazine A

SECRECY AND SECURITY AT BLETCHLEY PARK

Issue no. 2 Spring/Summer 2014

Bletchley Park Magazine B

Bletchley Park Trustees cordially invite Veterans and Friends of Bletchley Park to be the first to view the completed restoration project.

Entry strictly by prebooked ticket only. For further details please see page 47. RSVP to [email protected] or call us on 01908 272652

RESTORATION PREVIEWSATURDAY 10 MAY 2014

10.00AM – 4.00PM

FOR BLETCHLEY PARKChief Executive Officer: Iain StandenDirector of Development: Claire GlazebrookDirector of Operations & Communications: Kelsey GriffinMedia Relations Manager: Katherine Lynch

Bletchley Park TrustThe MansionBletchley ParkMilton KeynesMK3 6EBTel: +44 (0) 1908 640404Bletchley Park Shop: +44 (0) 1908 272684Friends & Veterans Office: +44 (0) 1908 272652Email: [email protected] www.bletchleypark.org.uk

Original Concept Design: Rose www.rosedesign.co.uk PhotographyCover illustration © George BletsisPhotographs © www.mubsta.com; © Ed ThompsonHistorical images: Crown Copyright. By kind permission Director GCHQ

FOR CULTURESHOCK MEDIAPublisher: Phil AllisonCommissioning Editor: David JaysEditorial team: Rachel Potts, Rhys Griffiths, Shula SubramaniamEditorial Assistant: Simon ArthurArt Director: Alfonso IacurciDesigners: Helen McFarland, Hannah DossaryProduction Manager: Nicola Vanstone

PUBLISHED TWICE A YEAR BY Cultureshock Media27b Tradescant Road London SW8 1XD+44 (0) 207 7359263www.cultureshockmedia.co.uk

Printed in England © Bletchley Park Trust 2014

SECRECY AND SECURITY AT BLETCHLEY PARK

Issue no. 2 Spring/Summer 2014

McAFEE AT BLETCHLEY PARKMcAfee is immensely proud to support the International Cyber Security Exhibition and Computer Learning Zone within the new Bletchley Park Visitor Centre in Block C.

Read more and get involved here:www.McAfeeatBletchleyPark.co.uk

Images courtesy of Crown Copyright reproduced with kind permission of Director GCHQ and www.mubsta.com

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Bletchley Park Magazine 2

CONTENTS

Bletchley Park LtdThe Mansion, Bletchley ParkMilton Keynes, MK3 6EBTel: +44 (0) 1908 640404

3 LETTER FROM THE CEOIain Standen introduces this issue of the magazine, its Secrecy and Security theme and explains why 2014 is a landmark year for Bletchley Park.

4 NEWSAll the latest Bletchley Park events, exhibitions and announcements.

7 MYTHBUSTERSForget what you knew about Bletchley Park. Michael Smith asks: Did Churchill order the destruction of Colossus?

8 ONE FROM THE ARCHIVE: THE AMPHIBIOUS FLYING MACHINEUnearthing an intriguing German drawing proves you can never be too certain of what’s lurking in the archives.

10 A SCRUPULOUS MAN Bletchley Park tour guide and enthusiast Dr Joel Greenberg gives an insight into the founder of SIXTA and subject of his new biography, Gordon Welchman.

14 VETERAN STORIES: THE FRENCH VETERANA rare interview between the late Brian Wynn Oakley and an anonymous French Veteran explores the relationship between the Allies and Vichy France.

34 I GATHER YOU SPEAK ITALIAN…The importance of legacies is demonstrated through the funding of a new Turing Education Officer by the donation of Veteran Elizabeth Ringe. Her family discover the immense effect her contribution will have on the education programme at Bletchley Park.

46 VISITOR INFORMATION Tickets, opening times and members’ events.

48 MY BLETCHLEY: SIMON CALLOWThe acclaimed actor and theatre director on why he chose Bletchley Park to feature in his segment on Daily Politics and the discovery of his university tutor’s Codebreaking past.

F E AT U R E S 16 THE LONG VIEWEven as the head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett KCMG OBE didn’t appreciate the full achievement of the Codebreakers of World War Two. Now Chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust, he tells David Jays about his passion for the history of the restored site.

20 PRESENT DANGEREmerging from a neglected World War Two machinery block, Bletchley Park’s new Cyber Security exhibition enters the secret world of today’s communications protectors, with world-leading firm McAfee (part of Intel Security) the project’s perfect partner.

38 THE INSIDE STORY Meet the architects, exhibition designers and historic paint researcher who are ensuring Bletchley Park and its history endure.


LETTER FROM THE CEO IAIN STANDEN

Welcome to this second edition of the Bletchley Park Magazine. In this issue we will be focusing on the theme of ‘Secrecy and Security’, and previewing the transformation that is underway at Bletchley Park at the moment.

The transformation that has begun will see the restoration of the site to its wartime glory. This will allow visitors to experience Bletchley Park as it would have been, and feel what it was like to work here during World War Two. The result will be a thriving heritage attraction that educates new generations about this crucial period as well as forming a permanent, and fitting, tribute to the men and women who through their hard work and sacrifice, made such a difference to the way we all live today.

2014 is a landmark year for Bletchley Park and is the culmination of 22 years of hard work by Trustees, staff and volunteers of the Bletchley Park Trust. Looking back over that time it is clear that the Trust has done an amazing job to safeguard Bletchley Park, and to fundraise and increase visitor numbers to facilitate its continuing renovation. This year will see the completion of the first phase of essential restoration work to the historic Bletchley Park site. In May we will formally re-launch, and the public will be able to see and appreciate the restoration work that has been undertaken to preserve some of the most vulnerable buildings at Bletchley Park.

The £8 million restoration project, part funded by a £5 million Heritage Lottery grant with an additional £3 million funding from other sources, has three main elements:

• Restoration of wartime Block C into a high quality modern visitor centre

• Restoration and conservation of some of the key Codebreaking huts

• Returning the landscape to how it would have been during World War Two

As I am sure all readers will agree, Bletchley Park is a site of national and historic importance. As the custodians of the site the Bletchley Park Trust are responsible for safeguarding and ensuring both the preservation and development of Bletchley Park for future generations. Thus as we celebrate this year’s significant milestone in the Bletchley Park journey, we are already looking to the future and there is a lot more work to be done.


NEWS

B L E TC H L E Y PA R K P R E S E N TS

Discover key moments and figures in Bletchley Park’s history through our range of upcoming talks. On 20 April journalist and author Christy Campbell discusses the role linguists played in Codebreaking operations during the war, especially in locating the secret German military research centre Peenemünde. On 18 May, writer and Bletchley Park volunteer Dr Joel Greenberg talks about Gordon Welchman, one of the most important figures in Bletchley Park’s history and the subject of Greenberg’s new biography (see page 10 for interview). On 15 June Sir John Dermot Turing will explore the background of his uncle Alan Turing, commemorating 60 years since the pioneering cryptanalyst’s death. See page 47 for full details of forthcoming talks.

P O D C A S TS F RO M T H E PA R K

Peek behind the scenes and explore Bletchley Park’s history and the continuing development of the heritage site through our series of podcasts featuring Bletchley Park Veterans, volunteers, staff and visitors. Discover more about Bletchley Park from those who were there in our interviews with Veterans, including Codebreaker and former Director of GCHQ Sir Arthur Bonsall; hear lectures from historians such as Professor Jack Copeland and keep up with the restoration through interviews with the site’s architects.

To hear the podcast please visit www.audioboo.fm/channel/bletchley-park

1 9 4 0 S B O U T I Q U E DAYS

Join us for a day of vintage styling and learn how to recreate the fashions and hairstyles of the 1940s through our new series of Boutique Days. Throughout 2014, hair stylist and make-up artist Sarah Dunn offers tips and tutorials on how to achieve that iconic 1940s look and master the classic victory roll hairstyle. Tickets include lunch, refreshments and entrance to Bletchley Park’s exhibitions and galleries.

For more details, visit www.bletchleypark.org.uk

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To further enhance the restoration of Bletchley Park, two rooms within the Mansion have been returned to their wartime appearance. The former library and office of Alastair Denniston, the first head of the Government Code and Cypher School, have been returned to their original wartime conditions and brought back to life.

Meticulously modelled on photographs taken by Codebreaker Claude Henderson, the library recreates the bustling atmosphere of a vital part of the Codebreaking centre, originally used by Italian and German subsections.

The recreation of Denniston’s ground floor office, furnished with his personal artefacts on loan from Denniston’s family, recaptures the setting in which new recruits including Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman were welcomed to Bletchley Park.

M A N S I O N RO O M S R E S TO R E D


L I V I N G H I S TO RY

Visitors to Bletchley Park were transported back in time over the February half term, as a host of actors recreated the wartime activities of the Government Code and Cypher School, engaging with families as if they were new recruits. Under the direction of Liv Spencer, four actors – including the granddaughter of a wartime Bombe Maintainer – took on the personas of Codebreakers, Women’s Royal Naval Service members, civilian administrators and members of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, bringing this extraordinary period of history to life.

This will be repeated for visitors to enjoy in the Easter holidays. See www.bletchleypark.org.uk for more details.

M I C H A E L P O RT I L LO’ S S EC R E T H E RO E S

As part of his BBC series Great British Railway Journeys, Michael Portillo visited Bletchley Park and described the ‘blanket of secrecy, which was rolled out across the nation’ as ‘fundamentally important’ to winning World War Two. Travelling on Robert Stephenson’s first inter-city line from London, the former Defence Secretary turned broadcaster stopped at Bletchley Park to speak with Veteran Betty Webb (pictured above), who contributed vital work to the war effort by paraphrasing Japanese messages. He also spoke to the Bletchley Park Podcast which can be heard at www.audioboo.fm/channel/bletchley-park.


BLETCHLEY MYTHBUSTERSMichael Smith asks... Did Churchill order the destruction of Colossus?

One of the most enduring myths of Bletchley Park is that, at the end of World War Two, Britain’s wartime Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, ordered the destruction of all of the Colossus computers. The implication is that the intense secrecy surrounding the Codebreakers’ work stifled the development of the modern computer. But it isn’t true, although many of those who worked on Colossus during the war certainly believed it to be the case.

Tommy Flowers, the General Post Office (GPO) engineer who created what was the world’s first semi-programmable electronic computer, said he was told to destroy all the evidence that had existed and so he incinerated all the GPO drawings and records.

One of the other GPO engineers working on Colossus, Norman Thurlow, recalled having to dismantle the computers at the end of the war in Europe in May 1945: ‘Our instructions ruled that no element remaining should be sufficient to give any indication of its possible use.’

But in fact, by the time the final decision was made on what to do with Colossus towards the end of 1945, Churchill was not Prime Minister, having been replaced by Labour leader Clement Attlee following Labour’s victory over the Conservatives in the July 1945 election.

Plans were already in place for the Cold War future of what was now increasingly referred to as the Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, a title that had been used as a covername by Bletchley Park since 1940. It was decided to move the Codebreakers to Eastcote in Middlesex. They transferred from Bletchley Park to Eastcote over the first four months of 1946, in four separate parties, the last of which left Bletchley Park in April 1946.

Only six Colossus computers were completely dismantled. Two were taken to Eastcote and continued to be used by GCHQ on a variety of projects into the 1960s. Two others were transported to the University of Manchester, where Max Newman, who was the man who first thought of Colossus, was setting up the Royal Society Computing Machine Laboratory. Newman, Alan Turing and Jack Good, who had all been involved in the conception of Colossus, all worked at the laboratory which built the world’s first electronic stored-program digital computer, the Manchester Baby, an important contribution to the development of the modern computer.

You can see a working replica of the original Colossus at The National Museum of Computing based at Bletchley Park.

Michael Smith is the author of The Secrets of Station X and co-editor with Ralph Erskine of The Bletchley Park Codebreakers. He is a Trustee of Bletchley Park and Chair of the Trust’s Historical Advisory Committee.

Michael Smith


A German drawing of an otherworldly ‘Amphibious Flying Machine’ has been unearthed in Bletchley Park’s archive, adding weight to the phrase ‘expect the unexpected’. Thought to have arrived during the time of the Bletchley Park Trust rather than wartime, the drawing’s origins remain unclear. Curator Gillian Mason and Senior Archivist Richard Lewis discuss this fascinating discovery.

ONE FROM THE ARCHIVE

Bletchely Park Magazine 9

What is this document?rl — A plan for a vehicle, possibly a mobile command centre, that could travel on land, sea and in the air. We believe that it was drawn by German military engineers during World War Two. gm — During an audit of the archive it was discovered in a map chest.

How did you feel seeing it for the first time?gm — Intrigued. I was reminded of the film Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.rl — Bemused, both at why it was designed and why it was at Bletchley Park. I soon found that it had a quaint appeal. The drawing, although high quality, is almost naive in its concept.

Could this design ever have been made into a functional object?gm — Unlikely! However, I do think that it would be a fascinating experiment to see someone attempt to build at least a scale version.rl — I have been told by a number of colleagues that engineers have looked at the plan and feel that it would be impossible to make a working machine.

How significant a find is the drawing? rl — It is an interesting curiosity. It is visually very attractive and people are drawn to look at it. As a plan for something that looks like it should be in Wacky Races, it seems to appeal to the child in people!gm — It does not provide any insight into the work that was carried out at Bletchley Park. However, it is interesting both in terms of what it depicts and how it came to be in the archive.

Is it common to discover such anomalous pieces in archives?rl — It is. These items have often been part of the collection since before any current members of staff started work and no one is sure how they came to be part of the archive. It is possible to remove such items from the collection properly but those that are more interesting are often kept. I once worked in an archive that had a rat in a glass bottle. No one knew where it came from or why it was there but much like our drawing it was popular and often referred to or shown to members of the public.

What will happen to the drawing now that it has been discovered?rl — The drawing is regularly shown to visitors to the archives as it has a broad appeal and is an example of how random items appear in all archives. We intend to make a surrogate of this document to show people, to save wear and tear to the original.

LIBRARY OF MEMORIES

Since 2012, Hyland Software and the Bletchley Park Trust have been working together to bring the birthplace of modern computing into the digital age via Hyland’s OnBase system. James Mayhew from Hyland elaborates, ‘access is currently limited to those collections on display. The lack of documentation of the archive collections means that the true extent of the material that they contain and the ability to research it is severely limited.’

Work is now underway to ensure Bletchley Park’s story endures, with Hyland’s help. ‘Enabling further research and classification,’ Mayhew says, ‘ultimately the public will be able to interact with these records.’ As well as safeguarding the physical archive, Bletchley Park is intent on capturing the important stories that every Veteran has to tell with the development of an Oral Archive. As Mayhew explains, ‘Veterans want their memories valued, preserved and properly treated as their legacy. It is particularly important that their memories are preserved professionally and in one location to ensure the real story of Bletchley Park is not lost.’

Left: The ‘Amphibious Flying Machine’ drawing discovered in Bletchley Park’s archive

A SCRUPULOUS

MAN


Left: Hut 6 leader Gordon Welchman

Dr Joel Greenberg’s interest in Bletchley Park and its Codebreakers began in the late 1960s. The writer and educational technology consultant has since become a researcher of the site, volunteer tour guide and now biographer of one of its most important wartime figures, Gordon Welchman.

He tells Shula Subramaniam about his new biography, Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park’s Architect of Ultra Intelligence. This explores the mathematician and Codebreaker whose controversial book The Hut Six Story (1982) offered the first postwar insights into the technical workings of Bletchley Park.

How did your interest and involvement with Bletchley Park begin?It started when I was at the University of Manchester in the late 1960s doing my PhD. Max Newman and Alan Turing, who’s probably the best-known figure from Bletchley Park, ended up at the university after the war. Newman only retired about four years before I got to Manchester in 1967, so I was well aware of their involvement in early British computing. When the books about Bletchley Park appeared, my initial interest was in how their work there had influenced their work on early computers. I then got hooked on their Codebreaking activities. Years later I was working at the Open University, which was only 10 minutes away from Bletchley Park so I used to go and look around.

Of all the figures in Bletchley Park’s history, what drew you to Welchman? I read the very first book about Bletchley Park, The Ultra Secret by FW Winterbotham in 1974, after it was serialised in the Sunday Telegraph. I followed the story but a lot of the books didn’t have much detail. I wanted to know how they actually did it and in late 1982 I came across The Hut Six Story by Welchman and it was a complete technical account. I would dip into it and was intrigued by it. When I volunteered at Bletchley Park I realised that Welchman was one of the most important people at Bletchley Park. I thought that no one even knew who he was and maybe I should write a book telling his story.

What qualities led to Alastair Denniston’s recruitment of Welchman? Denniston had colleagues trawl through the lists of people at Oxford, Cambridge and other British universities to identify mathematicians and other academics who were particularly bright and showed leadership qualities. A number of them were then approached by Denniston and asked if in the event of war they would undertake secret intelligence work. Welchman’s name was on the list known quaintly as ‘men of the professor type’. He said yes, so it went from there. There was a short two-week course in London in March 1939 and he duly reported to Bletchley Park the day after war was declared on 4 September 1939.

Welchman was banned from discussing The Hut Six Story in the media. Why was it so controversial and how significant was its publication? The British and American governments were prepared to say what had happened in terms of how Codebreaking work affected the outcome of the war, but were certainly more nervous about discussing technical detail. They were particularly keen to keep classified any information around traffic analysis; in other words, decrypted messages. Few individual decrypted messages were dramatic but it was the pattern of the German communication network they revealed which eventually enabled them to track the movements of the German forces. This led, at Welchman’s instigation, to SIXTA (Hut 6 traffic analysis).

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The National Security Agency (NSA) in America had been trying to prevent James Bamford from publishing a book called The Puzzle Palace (released in 1982), the first book to describe the activities of the NSA. Having lost the battle to keep Bamford’s book from being published my conclusion is that Welchman was collateral damage. His book came out shortly after Bamford’s and they probably thought that by pressuring him they might dissuade others writing similar books revealing information. They couldn’t, however, stop its publication.

What was the driving force behind Welchman’s book?Until he became aware that a sanctioned book had been published in 1974, he had refused to talk about the war with friends and family. He was involved in a programme called The Secret War, broadcast by the BBC in 1977, and they tried to get him to reveal information – but he wouldn’t say anything technical unless he had written approval from GCHQ. He maintained this stance for many years, but once other books started to come out he felt he had been somewhat relieved of the responsibility to keep quiet. Secondly, he was working as a consultant in the United States for the MITRE corporation, a research lab doing work for the American military in secure tactical communications. He felt that the American military was making many of the mistakes in their tactical communications as Germany had in World War Two. Finally, he felt that many of the people who worked for him in Hut 6 had never been recognised. Many of them had been employed as civil servants, weren’t in uniform and their families assumed they had shirked responsibility by finding a way of avoiding military service. Many of the men in Welchman’s first wife’s family were in the military and they would have little to do with him after the war. Those three things motivated him to write the book.

How do his family feel about him now and when did they find out about his work at Bletchley Park?They’re obviously proud of him. His youngest daughter, who has written the foreword to my book, didn’t know much at all until his book came out so they were quite surprised. There were rumours in the family but he was scrupulous in not speaking about it – but I think it’s a mistake to think that nobody in Bletchley Park said anything. Apparently, most of Alan Turing’s family knew that he was doing secret intelligence work at Bletchley Park. Welchman’s father knew he was working at Bletchley Park so it wasn’t totally secret; he told his father but nobody else.

You spoke with Welchman’s surviving family and studied his life intently – what was the most surprising thing you discovered about him?The way he was in his private life fitted the organisational talents that he demonstrated at Bletchley Park. When he decided to write the book in 1974 he wrote to former colleagues and kept a copy of every letter he wrote and received. He was meticulous in keeping information. I hadn’t known that he was very musical until I started my research. A hobby of his was to record music on cassette and go to retirement homes and hospitals to play it. His daughter had all the cassettes, all labelled and in immaculate condition. His first wife was a musician and he was involved in madrigal singing at Cambridge, he had quite wide musical tastes as well.


Last year the play That is All You Need to Know featured Welchman as a lead character, but he arguably doesn’t receive the same attention as Alan Turing. Why do you think that is?It’s important to understand that very few people other than Turing are known. One reason is because of Turing’s involvement before the war describing in published papers ideas that would lead to today’s world of computing. The story of his persecution for being a homosexual and his subsequent suicide was also widely known. He also had a wonderful biography written about him in 1983 by Andrew Hodges. Apart from Turing and now Welchman, out of all the key people who worked at Bletchley Park during the war, only Dilly Knox has had a biography written about him.

You’re now looking at the life of Alastair Denniston. Can you tell us about this next biography?Like Welchman, Denniston was also treated somewhat badly during and after the war. I’m hoping to tell his story within the context of signals intelligence and how it developed into its full flowering at Bletchley Park during the war.

As well as an author and researcher of the site, you are also a tour guide at Bletchley Park – what is your favourite building?Where the original wooden huts are is iconic and Hut 6 is so important to Bletchley Park – but when you go into Block D, it’s the largest building and it has the original strip lighting and original radiators, so there’s just this amazing atmosphere. It’s a toss up between Hut 6 and Block D.

Gordon Welchman: Bletchley Park’s Architect of Ultra Intelligence is published by Frontline Books and available to buy from www.bletchleypark.org.uk

‘Welchman’s in-laws assumed he had shirked military service. They would have little to do with him’

Below: Dr Joel GreenbergBelow right: Hut 6 (pre-restoration)

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VETERAN STORYTHE FRENCH VETERAN

The Oral Archive Project is busy interviewing Veterans about their experiences at Bletchley Park and its outstations.

In reviewing many other interviews recorded since the Bletchley Park Trust was set up, we have found some unexpected and intriguing snippets. We would love to hear from anyone who can add to what this Veteran says about relations between Bletchley Park and both Free and Vichy France.

This former French Enigma Operator insisted on anonymity when he was interviewed by the late Brian Wynn Oakley (who was President of the British Computing Society and a key figure in the Bletchley Park Trust). He discusses the transmission of information between the Allies, Vichy France, and the first break into the Enigma cipher in February 1940. What is not entirely clear from the Veteran’s first comments is whether he was working for the Vichy French Navy or the Free French Navy. The French submarine he refers to, Casabianca, was initially under Vichy control and escaped from Toulon when the Germans took over the naval base there. It defected to the Allied side near Algiers, and went on to play an important role in support of the resistance along the coasts of Corsica and Provence.

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french veteran: I was around 19 or 20 and was a student in Paris and there were some posters asking for men to serve in the navy, for those who would like to serve as interpreters. I spoke English but my English is very far from fluent and I can read German more than speak it. When we passed our examinations we learned that we would serve in the ciphering offices – that was in 1944 before the end of the war in Paris. Paris was liberated and immediately they were recruiting people and by chance I passed the examinations.

brian wynn oakley: Did you have to learn Morse or did you go straight to Codebreaking?

fv — First of all we were taught code writing, it was all manual.

bwo — Playfair and Double Playfair? [manual encryption technique]

fv — We had French systems including gémo, probably meaning générale monde , and others, the names of which I don’t remember.

bwo — Bletchley Park was reading some of the Vichy French codes but we had the help of a French submarine that escaped from Toulon and brought us the codebooks.

fv — Casabianca.

bwo — Yes, that’s right, Casabianca. So you were operating manually?

fv — First of all it was all manual, addition and subtraction, the safest way of ciphering was one-time pads for high authorities.

bwo — And you were using that for the very top levels?

fv — Yes for high authorities or badly positioned authorities in the world and messages to be transmitted via unsafe channels. We had books with prepared series of random digits and the choice was also random so there was a key number somewhere in the message. The same idea as Enigma. We also had one Enigma machine but I don’t remember with which authorities we used it. I remember everyday we had to change the rotors. It was the first work we did on arriving in the office in the mornings. One of us had to prepare the machine according to a key sheet given to us and then we had to wait for messages. We didn’t use it very much except for high authority messages and messages for the Indochina war, from Paris to Indochina. Messages were sent by radio. I remember a very funny story that we had worked to prepare our secret messages and we learnt afterwards that they could decipher our messages at Bletchley Park, which were of very little interest for them; we could’ve given them direct instead of ciphering.

bwo —There was an internal battle, after the war possibly between the end of the European war and the end of the Pacific war at the end of 1945, and the lads were asked to break these French messages but they objected and said they didn’t read other gentlemen’s mail. I don’t know what the outcome was but it is recorded that they went on strike.

fv — I remember smiling when we were told afterwards because we were doing the work twice: once in Paris and once in Bletchley Park.

bwo — Our cooperation as you know in 1940 was very good, the Château de Vignolles. Alan Turing was there at the Château and took the sheets the Polish referred to as the Zygalski sheets. Turing took the first set of sheets and the French and Polish team broke the first wartime Enigma on 17 January 1940. Those Codebreakers then went south and established themselves in a château in Provence. Bertrand was still controlling them, but in theory the Vichy government agreed to stop all Codebreaking activities.

fv — The Vichy government was divided; but I heard that some of the officers and civil servants succeeded in passing things to Great Britain and probably to Bletchley Park.


THE LONG VIEW

INTERVIEW WITH SIR JOHN SCARLETT

Even as the head of MI6, Sir John Scarlett KCMG OBE didn’t appreciate the full achievement of the Codebreakers of World War Two. Now Chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust, he tells David Jays about his passion for the history of the restored site.

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Sir John Scarlett spent his career in the Intelligence Services, rising over four decades to become Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (popularly known as MI6). He is also keenly interested in the history of British intelligence. Even so, for many years he had no idea about the work that went on at Bletchley Park.

‘For reasons related to the natural secrecy of the issue, it wasn’t known about for 30 years after the war,’ he tells me. ‘Within my own professional career that story has broken. I remember the impact it had on older, mostly female, staff working in the Service who had been at Bletchley Park in the war, and the way they reacted when the story broke. They couldn’t believe the story was being spoken about.’

He is now Chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust, and our conversation returns to secrecy and historical significance as we sit in a Mayfair club. London’s clubland is exactly where you might expect to meet a retired intelligence chief – though Sir John dryly advises me not to believe everything I read in novels. His style, in any case, is discreetly contemporary – the accessory of choice is not a pipe but an iPad, and his passion for Bletchley Park is related to a desire to dispel the many myths that cluster around intelligence work.

Sir John was one of the first Chiefs of the Service to have a public profile, and he also commissioned an official history of MI6 (taking the story up to 1949). His predecessors would have boggled at allowing a historian the run of the archives, but he believes that ‘there are certain moments where it’s the right time to do

something. The activity of the Intelligence Service is discussed in public, in general terms, much more than was the case 20 or 30 years ago. It’s important that people should understand where the Service comes from.’

Bletchley Park of course played a vital part in that story, but Sir John’s first visit was only seven years ago, as he approached the end of his tenure at MI6. It was, he admits, an eye-opening encounter. ‘I’m an amateur historian in a way,’ he says, ‘and have certainly spent a lot of time working on the history of intelligence in the 20th century, and had read a certain amount about Bletchley Park. But I don’t think it was until I went there that I quite saw the scale of the achievement and also the particular connection with my Service.’ When he retired and was invited to become a Trustee of the charity, it was, he says simply, ‘an obvious choice.’

Does he, I wonder, feel a kinship with the people who worked at the site during the war? ‘Yes and no,’ he considers. ‘There are parts of the story which are clearly linked to intelligence work, but I don’t think I have the right to claim that I can imagine what it was like there, or compare myself to it.’ On the other hand, he doesn’t find it difficult to make an imaginative leap towards that

crucial period. ‘It’s so easy to put yourself in the position of people of 70 years ago. It’s my parents’ generation. Of course there are many people who are still alive who are able to talk about their experiences there. And there are many, many people – I meet them all the time – whose father, grandfather, grandmother or aunt worked there.’

Since becoming Chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust in 2011, Sir John has been an effective advocate for the site. Why does he believe its preservation is so significant? He begins by offering some historical context. ‘There of course have been many significant achievements in the last 100 years and the achievement of the British Intelligence Service is well known – although much remains unrecorded in public, inevitably. Few, if any, would challenge that the single biggest achievement was at Bletchley Park from 1939–45. In fact it’s hard to think of anything else that has happened globally that is quite equal to it, in sheer scale, range, variety and impact in what was achieved. It is such an outstanding achievement in so important an area of our national history that the case for recognising it is overwhelming.’

After the war, much of the work remained immured in mystery, and no one thought to preserve the temporary buildings at Bletchley Park. ‘The site itself was detached from the story,’ Sir John agrees, ‘but what is unique is that this is where it actually happened.’ He likens Bletchley Park to frisson-charged locations like the Churchill War Rooms and HMS Belfast. ‘The key events happened here, in these buildings, but it’s very difficult to tell the story properly if you don’t have the site in good order.’

‘There is nowhere else quite like Bletchley Park. There is no comparison to make’


Given our own privacy-shredding culture, I wonder if he is surprised that so little information about Bletchley Park’s work reached the public domain. ‘It doesn’t surprise me, no,’ he replies. ‘In wartime conditions many people were keeping secrets in many areas of activity – that was the discipline and people knew that they had to be careful. And it’s not correct to say people wouldn’t keep secrets now. The security and Intelligence Services still work very hard on life and death issues. As long as people do have the discipline and commitment, and know why the rule is there, then they respect it.’

Intelligence Services on both sides of the Atlantic now receive greater public scrutiny than ever. ‘There’s always a natural tension between information that’s linked to national interests in some way, and whether it’s in society’s interests to have that kept quiet or in the public domain,’ he argues. ‘I don’t think that’s a new debate. Most people will accept in principle that there are some things that it’s best to keep secret, and the debate has to be what they are. I don’t think there is a fundamental shift there.’

What has changed, beyond recognition, is the technology by which intelligence is stored and disseminated – this will be an important part of the new Cyber Security exhibition at Bletchley Park. Sir John observed the shift towards the computer and internet during his own career. ‘It was a gradual process and showed itself in all sorts of ways,’ he reflects. ‘In a sense it wasn’t until the internet took off very recently that it revolutionised the notion of individual space. The underlying point isn’t about computing, it’s about the speed of

communication. Intelligence is about information – how it is communicated, the speed at which it’s communicated, how it’s handled. Everything happens much faster – and it’s a globalised world, which means that you have to think and react quickly.’

But here too Sir John takes the long view. ‘I’m always struck,’ he continues, ‘how that was also true at Bletchley Park during the war. They had huge amounts of information – millions of messages were intercepted, and often situations were very fast-moving. That made a big impression on me, actually. In this place, work was done which made a critical difference to whether we won or lost battles in North Africa, whether we successfully invaded Sicily, or how quickly we won the Battle of the Atlantic. The relationship between Codebreaking and the battle is absolutely direct.’

We have become familiar with the stories of how bright sparks were tapped to work at Bletchley Park – keen young mathematicians and crossword whizzes. Three decades on, Scarlett had not long graduated from Oxford when he joined in 1971, so what was his own route into intelligence? He has a think. ‘To be honest, I don’t exactly know. I applied for a job in the Civil Service, and one day was contacted by a distant organisation I knew nothing

‘In a globalised world, you have to think and react quickly’

about. Obviously my application had been diverted, somehow.’

Whatever led to it, he doesn’t conceal how he relished his work during the tense years leading up to the end of the Soviet Union; he learned Russian in the Service, and was twice posted to Moscow. ‘It was very interesting, the Cold War was the place to be.’ The segue from World War Two into the Cold War also helped preserve Bletchley Park’s secrets, ‘because we were living in a very tense, very threatening atmosphere. People forget that now.’

When the restored site relaunches in May, what treasures should visitors seek out? ‘One is the Lorenz machine, which is much less well known. This is the machine cipher that was used to decipher communications from German High Command.’ He also highlights Alan Turing’s annotated personal papers, and the atmospheric buildings where ‘extraordinary events happened – I think people will appreciate what was done there.’ And he restates his quiet astonishment at the achievements that took place in this Buckinghamshire site, for so long unheralded. ‘There is nowhere else quite like it. There is no comparison to make.’

‘Bletchley Park’s work is such an outstanding achievement that the case for recognising it is overwhelming’

Top and middle: Less obvious treasure: ‘the Lorenz machine which is much less well known...’

Bottom: Wartime Block C: ‘The key events happened here in these buildings’

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PRESENT DANGER

Bletchley Park’s new Cyber Security exhibition will link historic endeavours to contemporary challenges. Rachel Potts watches it take shape

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Nothing like this has ever been done before but Paul Gartside wasn’t worried about getting approval for his idea. It would not be out of place in the Mission Impossible franchise – which is why it has been allowed. Going on public display at Bletchley Park’s new Cyber Security exhibition opening this June is a hard drive loaded with every computer virus that McAfee has gathered in the last three decades.

Encased in acrylic, the disk will self-destruct – or at least be destroyed – if accessed. If the disk is somehow retrieved unscathed, its contents are protected with quadruple the encryption specified by the US military. But perhaps the most remarkable fact about it is that 80% of its contents derive from the period 2012–13.

Paul is Vice President of Product Development at McAfee (part of Intel Security), a leading international online security firm. An engineer by trade, firstly in hardware, he is extremely eloquent and passionate about his field. We meet in a cottage at Bletchley Park, part of the site’s old mansion complex, unseasonable sun streaming through the windows on a March morning. It is apt because the future is looking bright for Bletchley Park. Iain Standen, Bletchley Park CEO and Claire Glazebrook, Director of

Development, are here and keen to show Paul and his colleague Ross Allen, Vice President of UK, Ireland and Canada at McAfee, how the site has been transformed, particularly Block C. It had been home to pigeons and weeds during decades of vacancy but will soon be the new point of entry for visitors.

Both Ross and Paul share a deep interest in Bletchley Park and were instrumental in securing a five-year partnership between McAfee and the Bletchley Park Trust. They will fund and consult on, among other things, the new Cyber Security exhibition – hence the input on attention-grabbing objects for it – coming into being as we speak in Block C.

Paul filmed the upload process for his disk, and is wondering what tricks he can use to splice the footage together. Copying viruses from the decade before 1992 took only 0.2 of a second.

There’s a sense of excitement about what is being created here and everyone in the room agrees the partnership could not fit better. In 2012, Bletchley Park sought an industry specialist to aid its education activities, crucial in its goal to inform about encryption and security today. In November 2012, the Bletchley

Park Trust won Technology Charity of the Year in the V3 Technology Awards where Iain presented on its pre-restoration present and desired future. Ross was in the room. He says in his good-humoured Canadian baritone, ‘I thought, “I gotta help this guy out.”’

After initial contact, Ross visited. ‘It was shocking to me that the buildings had been let to go to that level of disrepair, for a national institution. It left quite an impression. We talked about funding and I surprised everyone in saying, “you haven’t asked me for enough.”’

Meanwhile, Paul was approached and made aware of Bletchley Park’s partner search. He was looking for a community related project to galvanise his team of engineers on security education and helping out at Bletchley Park was a no-brainer. ‘To me as a computer security engineer, this is the ultimate home of what we do.’

Though McAfee will receive exposure, for both Paul and Ross, the partnership means more. This is the largest sponsorship for McAfee in Europe. The firm runs an Online Safety for Kids programme already, but this will enable learning in a whole new way. Ross explains that they already do charity work, too.

‘I surprised everyone by saying, “you haven’t asked me for enough!”’- Ross Allen

Previous page: Inside the renovated Block C as it nears completion

Right: Ross Allen and Paul Gartside are shown Bletchley Park’s highlights including the recently reopened office of Alastair Denniston (the first head of the Government Code and Cypher School)

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‘That’s fine, but my philosophy is, let’s go put our monies where we can really make a marked difference.’

It is of course not just this need that grips them both. Ross admits to getting a real kick seeing Alan Turing’s coffee cup still chained to the radiator in his office. This small piece of history seems light years away from what’s going on now in the ‘cyber’ corner of Block C, let alone the real world. Ross marvels at how Bletchley Park kept mum, even between huts (‘you can’t keep that level of secrecy today’).

‘The challenge associated with breaking Enigma, all with slide rules and pads of paper, I mean that’s pretty incredible. Pure brainpower ultimately created Colossus,’ ruminates Ross. Paul agrees: ‘Tommy Flowers made Colossus using components which were not intended for what he ended up using them for. It’s that leap of faith that is the essence of true invention.’ He stresses. ‘A lot of what we deal with now is stuff we’ve never seen before.’

It is also, disconcertingly, stuff that he will never see. The exponential rise in viruses (now called malware), directly related to the rise of computer use, means that while 20 years ago a few highly intelligent academics disinfected each virus over a

few days, last month there were several million distinct pieces of malware on tablets alone. ‘Some we will never know about, the vast quantity and pace of threat growth means that we need programmable solutions,’ Paul explains. His team now can ‘convict’ malware from its suspicious behaviour alone.

McAfee’s work has evolved from ‘literally people brainstorming in a room’ bouncing ideas, trialling them, building on experience to create a fully automated system. The Codebreakers did that. That the world’s first semi-programmable computer came out of conflict – automating the workings out needed to break the Nazi’s Lorenz code – speaks to us about how and why information technology advances. Today web protectors and hackers constantly compete, sometimes sharing inventions.

With these links to draw between Bletchley Park and contemporary concerns, what will the exhibition look like? We don hard hats and stroll down to Block C, which like the rest of the site is being returned to the 1940s. Ross is impressed, joking ‘I thought this was just a dream last June.’ Painted and decked out in authentic lighting, the utilitarian past is starting to reveal itself.

‘The exhibition exposes weak passwords: 123456, I Love You and monkey’


Previous page: The newly restored Library in the mansion. This history seems light years away but the wartime Bletchley Park has remarkable links to present cyber security

Below: Ross admits to getting a real kick seeing Alan Turing’s set dressed office in Hut 8, including a representation of Turing’s coffee cup chained to the radiator as it would have been in wartime

Right: Paul and Ross are shown a wartime Enigma machine

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By contrast the Cyber Security exhibition will be an eye-popping slice of the present. Alexandra Fitzsimmons is an Interpreter in charge of developing exhibition storylines at Event Communications, who have designed it. The ‘intro section,’ Alexandra says, conjures up the internet as ‘an all-consuming, very real, very new environment.’ Grids of screens and coloured glass will show videos, be touch sensitive and change in transparency (a nod to the web’s illusion of privacy).

The chief target audiences are families and young people. Alexandra says ‘many will be internet natives, who have never known a

world without it. But to anyone over about 30 it’s still a new idea.’ She has ensured the exhibition is ‘meaningful to everyone.’ Iain likes the idea that children will be able to teach parents here. Importantly, he explains, as a physical experience it will beat any PowerPoint. ‘We can provide a different flavour to cyber security.’ A ‘dual wall’ will intermittently reveal the 1940s skin of the building so the past is always there.

The teenage Ross Allen learnt about Bletchley Park reading up on the exploits of fellow Canadian, the spy Intrepid. ‘I was a bit of a history nerd – and have never lost my passion.’ He was floored by the truth

behind the sinking of the Bismarck. Intercepted messages from a German commander, rashly sent because he had a relative on board, gave the Codebreakers their ‘in’. Ross only realised when he visited Bletchley Park that the scout planes that found the ship were a cover story.

The Codebreakers heavily relied on these slip-ups, enemy officers setting Enigma with girls’ names, for instance, not randomly. ‘The crazy thing is,’ says Paul, ‘70 years later people are still making the same mistakes. It’s human nature.’ The Cyber Security exhibition emphasises our current tendency for weak passwords (‘123456’, and, more bizarrely ‘I Love You’ and ‘monkey’ are in the top ten). Visitors must find a password left ‘lying around’ the exhibition for a peek at Paul’s ‘Pandora’s box meets Schrödinger’s cat’ of malware.

One of the many striking facts the exhibition conveys is that 73% of people now use the internet every day. Given the staggering leap in internet use what surprises Paul most is not that people are unaware how to safeguard themselves in the digital world but even in the face of overwhelming press coverage that they still don’t know that they need to care. ‘We have to do more to get the message across.

Left: Wartime images of Block C

Below: ‘The challenge associated with breaking Enigma, all with slide rules and pads of paper, I mean that’s pretty incredible’ – Ross Allen

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Once someone is in one of your online accounts,’ he reminds us, ‘they are you.’

Ross jumps in. Rather than men landing on beaches the next big event will be a cyber attack, he impresses on us, ‘there’s a razor’s edge between civilisation and chaos.’ The services that Bletchley Park provided are ‘equally important today. In fact cyber preparedness is probably more important now.’

The designers of the Cyber Security exhibition have been careful not to scaremonger, but rather encourage people to think for themselves and ask the right questions (about a child’s internet history, for example). The malware drive joins objects like police radios, but the entire exhibition really centres on interactives. It asks, How much do you share online? A debate-led area allows voting on topics like, Is privacy more important than public safety? Votes are totalled, but no answers given. An attacker and protector can compete secretly either side of an electronic screen, Battleships-style; it turns transparent to reveal the victor.

McAfee have advised closely on the exhibition, Alexandra explains, ‘they have so many amazing insights into what they do.’ The reality of their ‘awe-inspiring’

day-to-day has been invaluable. McAfee put Bletchley Park in touch with real online security workers, many of whom work incognito. Their stories of daily struggles to outwit cyber attackers will be delivered in ‘sound cones’ from above, activated by visitor movement.

Next autumn, computing has increased status on the National Curriculum. Many initiatives jointly run by Government and industry have sprung up to engage and inform the public about cyber risks, such as Sky Studios for young people, and more recently Cyber Streetwise run by the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism at the Home Office, which is geared towards individuals and businesses. Peter Wilson heads the project team who has also advised on Bletchley Park’s exhibition (as have CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre). Is this the right time for a new surge of focus? ‘The very critical would say it’s too late, others would say it’s about time,’ he replies. Most think the need now is for consistent, standardised advice.

The Cyber Streetwise campaign presents a targeted set of messages aimed at helping people adopt good practice: lighthearted films, posters, radio and digital triggers compare online and

‘There’s a razor’s edge between civilisation and chaos’

Above: A hard drive loaded with every computer virus that McAfee has gathered in the last three decades

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real-world issues (‘you wouldn’t leave your front door unlocked…’). Peter agrees it’s not about fear but more akin to getting people to wear seatbelts in the 1980s, ‘making sure we’re unconsciously secure online.’ Bletchley Park, he says ‘is an obvious place to be involved with. There’s something incredibly British about it which gives it an authority and a credibility; it is a clear point of navigation through the complex international digital space that we so easily access in this day and age.’

Ross is keen to impress that the McAfee-Bletchley Park project is ‘not just a one-time thing.’ McAfee will help with annual exhibition updates so it stays current and are running a competition for schools across the UK to engage them in the project. It is funding the newly appointed Online Safety Education Officer – ‘a really important thing for us,’ explains Claire, fulfilling a need for digital expertise that will enable prior and

post-visit learning, augmenting their current, over-subscribed school workshops. Bletchley Park needs support for its digital strategy and McAfee will help with a first online exhibition, giving Bletchley Park’s teaching power the widest possible reach. McAfee volunteers will sweep, paint, digitise the archive and do anything else they can onsite.

‘We get on famously now and I think that’s going to continue,’ Ross says, ‘and everybody’s really excited.’ Paul is animated about the opportunities for creativity here and for a man who spends his day dealing with the unexpected, he is

very comfortable with keeping an open mind. If anything, the partnership will need to respond to technology as it develops. ‘Change is interesting, being adaptive is what we’re all about.’

As computing and life become inseparable, Bletchley Park cannot only be a place to learn about where this technology was born. It can also communicate the nature of computing and how humans interact with machines; lessons that will impact on all our lives now and in the future, whatever technological marvels it might hold.

‘The Cyber Security exhibition will be an eye-popping slice of the present’

Right: Preview of Cyber Security screens designed by Event Communications

Below: Paul and Ross meet Bletchley Park CEO Iain Standen

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‘I GATHER YOU SPEAK ITALIAN…’Rhys Griffiths meets the family of Elizabeth Ringe, and learns how the Veteran’s legacy will have an immense impact on education at Bletchley Park.

Elizabeth Ringe (née Barral)


When John Walker visits Bletchley Park in March 2014, it is in remarkably more relaxed circumstances than those in which John’s aunt, Elizabeth Ringe, arrived in 1942. John is visiting Bletchley Park with his family for the first time to learn about the work ‘Aunty Liz’ undertook during the war years, and how a £10,000 legacy left to Bletchley Park in her Will is to be spent on funding Bletchley Park’s new Turing Education Officer.

Like many Veterans, Elizabeth Ringe (née Barral) was extremely cautious when speaking about Bletchley Park – she only started talking about her wartime experiences in earnest when she was in her 80s, but John distinctly remembers her account of the unorthodox introduction she was given to Bletchley Park.

‘When war broke out, Aunty Liz joined the RAF and did her basic training, but after that she was left hanging around while a lot of her friends were given jobs to do. One day she was told to go to an office in Whitehall for an interview,’ he says. ‘She was called into a room and asked to sit in front of three officers behind a raised desk, one of whom said to her, in Italian: “So, I gather you speak Italian quite well.”’

The daughter of a foreign diplomat, Elizabeth was schooled in Italy and thus spoke fluent Italian. The operation at Bletchley Park had a great need for young, intelligent people with language skills, although Elizabeth was completely unaware of this fact at the time.

‘They gabbled away in Italian for 10 minutes or so, and eventually the chap said, “Right, we’ve got a job for you. We’ll send some transport around tomorrow morning and just go where you’re told to.” John recalls his aunt describing how a motorbike with a sidecar arrived for her the next morning and how she was whisked away to Bletchley Park, where she would spend the next four years. Later, Elizabeth would describe Bletchley Park as the best time of her life, but at the time of her intimidating recruitment she had initially feared the worst. ‘I think she suspected she was being taken away to be locked up,’ says John, ‘that they thought she was a spy!’

Elizabeth worked at Bletchley Park from 1942–46 in the air section as an Italian translator and later on Japanese indexes. It was at Bletchley Park that the family believe she met her future husband, Lawrence Ringe. While she told her family little about her work at Bletchley Park, both John and his daughter Jenny recall her speaking fondly of the dances and balls that would take place, and skating on the lake in winter. ‘I remember her talking about walking with Uncle Lawrence around the gardens and how lovely it was,’ remembers Jenny. ‘I have an image in my mind of them strolling around together.’

Elizabeth’s story after the war is similar to many of the young women who had worked amid the excitement of Bletchley Park only to return to a humdrum world in which many pre-war values still prevailed. After the war, John says, she became a housewife, and never returned to Bletchley Park. Elizabeth died last year aged 92.

‘You forget that these people were only in their 20s when they arrived here – the war had a massive effect on that generation’s lives,’ says John. He has arrived armed with documents to share with the team at Bletchley Park, who are eager to learn as much as possible about Elizabeth, a Veteran to whom Bletchley Park clearly meant a great deal. The Bletchley Park Trust know from the Roll of Honour which departments Elizabeth served in and basic administrative information, but little else – the remarkable story of her recruitment, for example.

First though, John and his family, three generations of which are represented today, join around 40 teenagers for a lesson on Enigma led by Bletchley Park volunteer David Cope. An amateur dramatist and former physics teacher, whose outreach work for Bletchley Park has extended as far as Uganda, Cope holds his young audience rapt with the story of how lazy German code words provided Codebreakers with a key breakthrough. ‘If the first three letters are ‘H-I-T’’, he asks, ‘what might be the last three?’ John is quick off the mark: ‘L-E-R!’

‘Elizabeth described Bletchley as the best time of her life’


John is impressed at how attentive and interested young people are in the Bletchley Park story. Elizabeth, he says, always intended to leave a legacy to Bletchley Park – she had told him so as long as 20 years ago – and she’d be delighted to learn that her money will contribute to the education of future generations.

‘Bletchley Park today has a really forward-looking aspect to it, which I think is what is going to keep it on the map,’ says Dermot Turing who is a Trustee of Bletchley Park and nephew to the late Alan Turing. ‘We have a very successful education programme here at the moment, but its capacity is constrained. There are hundreds of schools that are interested in our programme, it’s just a matter of having enough people on site to satisfy that demand – the Turing Education Officer will be a huge help with that.’

This, of course, is something that interests John and his family. At 22 months old,

John’s grand-daughter may be too young to take advantage of Bletchley Park’s educational facilities, but she won’t be for long. Changes to the National Curriculum from this autumn will see computer studies and algorithms included in the new Computing curriculum at Key Stages 1 and 2, and one of the key duties of the Turing Education Officer will be to ensure Bletchley Park’s education programme covers these changes. Engaging young people through maths and logic problems is something that the Bletchley Park story is unusually predisposed to do.

After the lesson, Richard Lewis, the Bletchley Park Senior Archivist, lays out documents relating to Elizabeth’s time at Bletchley Park to show the family, including the Japanese flash cards that Elizabeth may have used. Tom Briggs, Bletchley Park’s Outreach Officer gives them a crash course on the Enigma machine and they are surprised to learn that it was used not only by the Germans, but by the

Italians and the Japanese too. The family remembers that Elizabeth could read Japanese characters, but not speak the language, which is consistent with cipher practice at Bletchley Park – workers only learnt to identify a few characters by sight.

Richard, as well as Bletchley Park CEO Iain Standen and Director of Development Claire Glazebrook, are equally keen to see the photographs and documents John has brought with him. Photographed in her uniform, Elizabeth looks very young – many recruits were around the same age that young people today start university. John has also brought along a somewhat cryptic letter from the Secret Intelligence Service concerning the occupation of Elizabeth’s father, Alexander Barral. When she was alive, Elizabeth claimed her father was a foreign diplomat. On her marriage certificate, however, he is described as an ‘Intelligence Officer’. The plot, as it were, thickened, when John noticed that the address given for Barral was 5 Buckingham Gate, the proximity of which to MI5’s then

‘Bletchley Park is the only real location where you can say with absolute certainty that maths actually changed the world’


headquarters led John to speculate on the true nature of his work. A written request for more information to the Secret Intelligence Service was met with a tantalisingly enigmatic response neither confirming nor denying knowledge of Barral’s links to the secret services. As with so many aspects of the Bletchley Park story, we are left with only hints as to what might have been. Iain recalls a similar story from another Veteran, fluent in languages, with a background just like Elizabeth.

The team is fascinated to learn that John has another remarkable family link to Bletchley Park. His father, who was unrelated to Elizabeth and never met her, was a radar operator on HMS Petard (the ship that sunk the German submarine U-559 and captured from it the codebooks crucial to cracking Enigma). ‘My dad saw the whole thing from the deck,’ says John. ‘It’s amazing to think that while he was aboard the Petard on the evening of 30 October 1942 watching his chums recovering the log books from

U559, Aunty Liz might have been at Bletchley Park doing her bit. Neither of them could have known that in the future they would be connected via this incident and the work of Bletchley Park.’

Nor, indeed, could either have foreseen Bletchley Park as it is in 2014, both a heritage site and the dedicated centre of learning that has so impressed John and his family. Learning, says Director of Learning & Collections at Bletchley Park Vicky Worpole, is perhaps the most important aspect of Bletchley Park.

‘If you’re not trying to educate people you might as well make a lovely museum and then just shut the doors,’ says Vicky. ‘The new Turing Education Officer will support our fantastically successful team of volunteers who have taken Bletchley Park’s education programme to where it is today.’ Bletchley Park is ideally suited to teaching maths by stealth, engaging young people in a way that textbooks and the classroom cannot.

‘Bletchley Park is probably the only heritage site where you can say with absolute certainty that maths was used to produce an actual result that changed the world,’ says Vicky. ‘People might say “it’s not all maths, it’s logic,” but if you’re trying to show your students an example of people applying logic and mathematics to an actual problem and achieving an actual result which changed the course of history then there is nowhere like Bletchley Park.’ That, essentially, is what a legacy left to Bletchley Park can mean: the difference between an inactive museum, and a forward-looking site where the work of wartime Codebreakers can inspire the mathematicians, problem solvers and code writers of tomorrow.

Far left: John’s father’s photographs from his time on HMS Petard

Below: Elizabeth’s family experience Bletchley Park’s education programme first hand which will be assisted by her legacy

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As the Bletchley Park restoration projects nears completion, Rhys Griffiths meets the specialists who have helped preserve a site

that was never meant to survive.

INSIDE STORY


It is a conundrum that is unlikely to have troubled members of ‘Captain Ridley’s Shooting Party’ when they initially occupied Bletchley Park in September 1938: how can a site built in the most improvisational of spirits become a heritage attraction for future generations?

As might be expected of a site organised around principles of the utmost secrecy, Bletchley Park does not easily yield its remarkable past. Even now, with the rapidly growing interest in the Codebreakers’ story. Which, of course, is just how those who ran Bletchley Park between 1938–45 wanted it; their only legacy-related concern pertained to Bletchley Park’s role in helping to win the war, and keeping quiet about it.

With the threat of demolition and development, there was almost no site to consider preserving when the Bletchley Park Trust took over management in 1992. As a restoration project is in full swing and long term refurbishment nears completion, we meet the team tasked with making Bletchley Park fit for the 21st century.

Left: Examining historic paint samples under high magnification allows architectural paint researcher Ian Crick-Smith to advise the restoration team to create the most authentic renewal possible

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‘I was always taught: when you go into a building that looks like it shouldn’t be standing, never panic!’ Architect Janie Price recalls how she put this advice into practice on a visit to Bletchley Park in 2010. ‘Many of the buildings were in an advanced state of decay, onset by dereliction. When it rained, the inside got as wet as the outside.’

The first impressions of her partner, Ken O’Callaghan, were of a similar nature. ‘At first I saw the site as a jumble of buildings, some insensitively placed,’ he recalls. ‘Later, when I understood their function, and the constraints under which they were built, I developed a deep admiration for the pragmatism of the achievement. Knowing what I do now, I see a beauty in them.’

Many would share this admiration for Bletchley Park’s built-to-function charms, but few would deny it was in need of serious work when KOC Architects were selected to oversee the restoration work in 2010. Despite its unpolished appearance, the potential was clear. ‘The first three months was a very intense period,’ says Ken. ‘We were getting to grips with the remarkable story of Bletchley Park, and working out a way to fulfill the requirements of the museum, organise a visitor experience, and prioritise the much-needed restoration work. Fortunately we were able to tap into the knowledge of many Veterans for guidance.’

‘I was fascinated to learn that Bletchley Park hosted up to 9,000 shift workers at its peak’, he continues. ‘That they were mostly young, single and bright suggested that Bletchley Park would have resembled a modern day university campus; full of activity with a good social life. That was something we decided to try and recapture.’

In the first instance, this meant identifying the site’s assets – and removing its hindrances, notably the cars that seemed to dominate the site. ‘Our first impression was that the house resembled a mansion in a car park as opposed to a mansion in a parkland,’ admits Janie. ‘There were cars everywhere because the Bletchley Park Trust was finding it hard to cope with the ever-increasing number of visitors.’ Reinstating the mansion lawn has revealed the original footprint of the NAAFI Hut, previously lost under the tarmac.

With further planning, other assets emerged. ‘We decided that the medieval fish pond in the centre of the park worked wonderfully as a focal point for the pre-war and wartime buildings, and placed it at the heart of our interpretation,’ says Ken. ‘Our priority, though, is authenticity over aesthetics, using authentic fixtures and fittings, historically accurate colours and retaining the original windows. It’s a simple, honest approach that is the difference between a museum and a theme park; both interpret the story, but only the museum has the original artefacts, and the buildings themselves are important artefacts.’ This of course, does not preclude the addition of certain mod cons – central heating, for example.

To those who worked there during the war years, the idea of Bletchley Park’s secrets being wilfully shared in the new Visitor Centre in Block C would seem absurd. Indeed such developments seemed remote just four years ago: Ken remembers how Block C housed an internal fern garden, nurtured by water running freely through open roof lights. Soon it will house a new orientation exhibition, the centrepiece of a restoration that has modernised Bletchley Park while going with the grain of its historic fabric.

INSIDE STORYTHE ARCHITECTSKen O’Callaghan and Janie Price are the husband and wife team behind Kennedy O’Callaghan Architects. Bletchley Park, they say, is a dream project – even with holes in the roof.


‘Our priority is authenticity over aesthetics’

Site manager from Fairhurst Ward Abbotts Martin Brewer and architect Janie Price on site at Bletchley Park

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INSIDE STORYTHE DESIGNERSJames Alexander, Alexandra Fitzsimmons and Steve Lumby of Event Communications explain the restoration of Bletchley Park and how its complex story might be its trump card.

‘When you cross the threshold into Bletchley Park there’s an opportunity – not so much to go back in time, but to be immersed in a place that is uniquely special.’ James Alexander is CEO of Event Communications, the exhibition design group tasked in helping Bletchley Park tell its remarkable story. ‘My father, who was a boy during the war, loves Bletchley Park, but it also has the power to mean something to young people visiting for the first time. If young people can relate to what happened at Bletchley Park, then it can become a site for cross-generational communication.’

Working with KOC Architects, Event Communications have overseen the project to bring Bletchley Park into the 21st Century. It is vast and storytelling is key. Event’s work comprises the Cyber Security exhibition in Block C as well as an introductory exhibition giving context to the Bletchley Park story. Huts 3 and 6 are being refurbished to capture their unique wartime environment, and Hut 8’s interactive displays will allow visitors to follow the Codebreakers’ mental processes. Displays and soundscapes around the site will add to the recreation of wartime atmosphere.

Hut 11 was first to be completed, expedited by a significant legacy from Veteran Maureen Jones. ‘We got a good response from the Veterans who came to the opening,’ says Alexandra Fitzsimmons, who as Interpreter at Event, is in charge of developing exhibition storylines: ‘If they approve, we’re doing something right!’

‘Our aim was to bring together Bletchley Park’s three key assets – the site itself, its history, and the stories of the incredible raft of people who worked here – into a cohesive visitor experience,’ says James. But how to accommodate both family groups who want an overview of the Bletchley Park story, and technical groups hoping to get into the nitty-gritty of Codebreaking? The solution, remarkably, lay in the site’s challenging and multi-layered history.

‘I am continually intrigued by how compartmentalised the process at Bletchley Park was,’ James says. ‘Not only was it top secret outside, but even within Bletchley Park the process was broken down so nobody had a sense of what was happening from start to finish.’ Indeed, at its peak, thousands of men and women worked in temporary buildings with little or no idea of what was happening only yards away in the next hut; one Veteran Sarah Baring described the site as ‘a labyrinth from which there was no exit.’

Bletchley Park’s history has allowed the designers, says James, to ‘layer the various narrative strands,’ appealing to both new and returning visitors. ‘We have put considerable effort into getting the basics across to visitors quickly,’ Alexandra explains, ‘but there are lots of more complex materials on display, some that have not been displayed before – and we’ve incorporated the Veterans’ voices.’ Each visitor can choose how deeply they burrow into the Bletchley Park backstory. The unique selling point for the visitor is that it actually happened here’, says Event’s lead designer on the Bletchley Park restoration project, Steve Lumby. ‘Visitors will immediately feel that they’re standing in the place where thousands of people deciphered everything the German war machine was doing and kept it a secret for 30 years – and some for even longer than that.’

James is keen to reaffirm another key aim: making clear Bletchley Park’s continued relevance in the modern world. ‘One of the things we are seeking to do is allow people of all ages to understand the connections that Bletchley Park can make to different points in history, something we’ve hoped to achieve with the Cyber Security exhibition.’

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‘Our work involves removing cross-sections of paint from the surfaces of Block C and Huts 1, 3 and 6,’ says Ian, who has more than 20 years’ experience in architectural paint research. ‘We compare the samples under high magnification, until a full decorative history of the building is established. We are then able to advise on accurate paint finishes, types and colours for the team refurbishing these historic buildings.’

The concept of reconstructing a building’s history through its paintwork might seem far-fetched, but such research has proven vital in recreating Bletchley Park’s wartime environment. Authenticity alone is not enough, argues Ian. ‘Pure preservation that doesn’t enhance our understanding is not of any real benefit. Through our research at Bletchley Park, we are able to provide a full colour experience to new visitors of the buildings, people, and achievements that were accomplished here.’

INSIDE STORYRESEARCHERS OF HISTORIC PAINT‘To many young people, the past is often only seen in black and white,’ says Ian Crick-Smith, Senior Research Fellow of the University of Lincoln Centre for Research and Conservation of Cultural Heritage. As a paint researcher, he’s in a very literal sense putting the colour back into Bletchley Park.

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Bletchley Park’s paintwork will be taken back to its wartime appearance


INSIDE STORYA PHOTOGRAPHIC RECORD OF THE RESTORATION

Take a look behind the scenes at the extensive work transforming Bletchley Park’s near derelict huts and blocks into a world-class heritage site.


VISITOR INFORMATION

OPENING TIMES Bletchley Park is open to visitors daily except 24, 25, 26 December and 1 January.

WINTER OPENING (1 November to 28 February)From 9.30am to 4.00pm.

SUMMER OPENING(1 March to 31 October) From 9.30am to 5.00pm.

Please note the gates will open at the times stated above and limited, free parking is available on-site. Please be aware that a visit to Bletchley Park involves both indoor and outdoor activities. Please wear outdoor clothing and footwear to ensure a safe and enjoyable visit.

Bletchley Park has full disabled access throughout the site. A limited number of wheelchairs are available for visitors to use while on-site and pre-booking is essential, call + 44 (0) 1908 640404. Please note: although wheelchairs are made available for visitors to use, we cannot provide wheelchair assistants/pushers.

Admission price entitles you to an Annual Season Ticket, which is valid for as many visits as you would like during the 12 month period from the time of your first visit. Your admission fee includes complimentary use of the newly-launched Multimedia Guide (in return for a fully-returnable deposit) and an optional one hour outdoor walking guided tour with one of our volunteer tour guides.

Please note that the information above does not apply to Group Visitors. We offer discounts and catering packages for groups of 20 or more people.

ADULTS £15.00

CONCESSIONS (Over 60s and students with valid ID) £13.00

CHILDREN 12 TO 16 £9.00

CHILDREN UNDER 12 (With friends and family only. Groups of children with clubs, such as Cub Scouts, should contact us in advance.) Free

FAMILY TICKET (Two adults + two children aged 12 to 16) £34.00

Also available for visitors to Bletchley Park, but operating independently of the Bletchley Park Trust, is the The National Museum of Computing - An independent museum tracing the development of the computer from Colossus to the modern-day and housing a working replica of Colossus. This museum is located on the Bletchley Park site and charges its own admission fees.


Join the Friends of Bletchley Park and be the first to see new exhibitions and receive priority booking for all other events. To join, visit www.bletchleypark.org.uk, call +44 (0)1908 272652 or email [email protected]

EXHIBITION PRIVATE VIEWS FRIENDS & VETERANS RESTORATION PREVIEW 10 May (10am–4pm)

Be the first to see Bletchley Park’s completed restoration project, with a preview day for Friends and Veterans of Bletchley Park. The restored Huts 3, 6 and 8 will be open to view the evocative displays and exhibitions along with the new Visitor Centre in Block C with its shop, cafe and exciting new orientation exhibition: a unique opportunity to experience the site before it opens to the general public. Tea, coffee and cake will be served. Admission is free, but by ticket only. RSVP to [email protected] or (+44 01908 272652).

PRIVATE VIEW OF CYBER SECURITY EXHIBITION 16 June (7–9pm)

Bletchley Park is proud to announce the opening of a Cyber Security Exhibition and Online Safety Learning Zone, sponsored by McAfee (part of Intel Security) (see feature on page 20 for more details). Please join us for a drinks reception and private view of this exciting new exhibition with an introductory talk by Paul Gartside, Vice President of McAfee Product Development and a chance to meet the exhibition and design team. Entrance is free to Friends. RSVP to [email protected] (Tel: 01908 272652).

BLETCHLEY PARK PRESENTS...

Friends receive two weeks’ priority booking for this new monthly lecture series held at Bletchley Park. Tickets for each lecture are £20.

FORTHCOMING LECTURES (All 2–4pm)

18 May Dr Joel Greenberg Joel Greenberg discusses his new biography of Gordon Welchman, one of Bletchley Park’s most important figures during World War Two, whose contribution was fundamental to its success. (See interview on page 10).

15 June Sir John Dermot Turing 2014 marks the 60th anniversary of Alan Turing’s death. Dermot Turing explores the life and achievements of his famous ancestor, discusses Turing’s design of the Bombe and gives a family perspective on the controversial circumstances surrounding his death.

20 July The Women of Bletchley Park Bletchley Park proudly presents four women (Ruth Bourne, Gwendoline Page, Jean Valentine and Charlotte Webb) whose diverse roles within the Government Code and Cypher School during World War Two give a rare insight into the workings of this secret organisation.

17 August Andrew Hodges Andrew Hodges teaches mathematics at Wadham College, University of Oxford. He will talk about his book Alan Turing: The Enigma, currently being made into a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, which will be released later this year.

21 September Guy Burt and Sarah Harding Guy Burt, the writer and creator of the hit ITV drama, The Bletchley Circle, gives an exclusive glimpse into the story behind the series. He will be joined by Sarah Harding who directed the second, two-part story in series 2 and whose mother was a wireless operator/Morse slip reader at Bletchley Park.

19 October DC Gary Ayton Assistant Curator at the Crime Museum, Scotland Yard’s Gary Ayton has 30 years’ experience in the investigation of major crime and homicide. He will offer a unique insight into the history of the Metropolitan Police, and particularly its role during times of conflict.

16 November Ben Macintyre The bestselling author and TV presenter will talk about his new book A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. Using newly released MI5 files and previously unseen family papers, and with cooperation of former officers of MI6 and the CIA, this definitive biography unlocks what is perhaps the last great secret of the Cold War.

MEMBERSHIP EVENTS


The actor Simon Callow recently visited Bletchley Park to make a film for BBC Daily Politics. He spoke to the Bletchley Park Podcast about Alan Turing’s persecution and his old university tutor’s unexpected past.

We were making a short film for the programme The Week commenting on the situation in Russia for gay people. We thought Alan Turing was a very interesting example of someone who lived in a society in which homosexual rights were nonexistent. He was one of the great figures of World War Two, perhaps the most brilliant Codebreaker of them all, and a mathematical genius who helped save innumerable lives. But in 1952 he was arrested for having sexual contact with another man and threatened with prison. He opted instead to be chemically castrated, then two years later he committed suicide. It is one of the most terrible and poignant stories because he was a very sweet man in many ways, somewhat otherworldly, as so many mathematical geniuses are.

This was England only 60 years ago. Incredible leaps and bounds have been made since, but not everywhere. In Russia things seem to be going backwards, which is terrifying because 10 years ago when I was in Moscow there was absolutely no problem at all; everybody was looking forward to a considerably more liberal dispensation with regard to sexual and every other kind of minority. It turned out to be a false dawn.

I have another more personal connection with Turing because I went to university in Belfast in 1968 and my tutor was a man called John Herivel. I was absolutely astonished to find that he was a Codebreaker responsible for one of the most useful discoveries in Codebreaking [The Herivel Tip – a key technique used to break Enigma ciphers]. The great thing about it was that it wasn’t a mathematical observation at all, it was just an intuitive leap. He was a wonderful teacher, in the old fashioned way. During his tutorials he used to make tea and toast crumpets by the fire. He was a very profound thinker but very unexpected in his approaches and discussions, though there was no sense at all that he had done something extraordinary with his life. He didn’t say anything about it at the time, not until near the end of his life when he wrote a book called Herivelismus and the German Military Enigma. That was his generation; they didn’t kiss and tell.

Herivelismus and the German Military Enigma is available to buy from www.bletchleypark.org.uk

MY BLETCHLEY SIMON CALLOW

Simon Callow was speaking to Katherine Lynch, the Bletchley Park Trust’s Media Manager.

‘Incredible leaps and bounds have been made – but not everywhere’


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bletchley park magazine — issue 2

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