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Hilary Bedford with the medal she recently received from Gordon Brown |
WWII CODE CRACKER’S SECRET LIFE
REVEALED: War heroine tells amazing story for first time
A SECOND World War code-breaker who kept her double life secret from her family for more than 60 years today reveals her story for the first time in the New Journal.
Hilary Bedford, who lives in Somers Town, worked at Bletchley Park intelligence base during the war, helping to crack codes devised by the infamous German Enigma machine.
The 85-year-old recently received a gold medal and official certificate from Prime Minister Gordon Brown that stated: “The Government wishes to express to you its deepest gratitude for the vital service you performed during World War II.”
Ms Bedford signed the Official Secrets Act at the time and, despite the disclosure laws lapsing after 25 years, she has never spoken about her war effort until today.
“I have never told anyone – my husband, my parents, my uncles and aunts, even my daughter,” she said. “I am going to photocopy the paper and send it to all my relatives.
“I never really thought to say anything. You shut it out you see, and I never had a problem with that – you just deal with it. But I think you have to be a certain kind of person to live with secrets.”
Ms Bedford had never left the small fishing village where she grew up in Wales until 1943 when she moved, aged 17, to Mill Hill to join the Women’s Royal Naval Service.
There she was “vetted” to join the Government Code and Cipher School (GCCS) in Bletchley Park.
“It was all very mysterious,” she said. “They wanted raw material. They didn’t want people who were infected by other careers. I was unique stuff to train.
“We were all very normal people – the backbone of England – and all very loyal to the United Kingdom.”
Working on a giant clunking computer the “size of a wall”, Ms Bedford described how she loaded the machine with “menus” holding “trillions of permutations” of jumbled German codes.
She said: “We were receiving messages between Hitler and his generals. You had to set up three banks of wheels and feed the computer with the numbers and letters. You did a run and then put another menu in. You never got a word for word conversation. You got fragments. There was a lot of guesswork.”
“Hitler said we would never break the messages sent by Enigma code – but we [Britain] built a machine that did.”
The “bombe” code-breaking machine was devised by Ms Bedford’s boss, Alan Turing, who received an official apology from Gordon Brown in September.
Turing, regarded as one of the most brilliant mathematical minds of the 20th century, was prosecuted for being homosexual in 1952 and given a dose of female hormones as an alternative to prison. He grew breasts and later committed suicide.
“He couldn’t tell anyone about what he had done,” said Ms Bedford. “He never had anyone say to him what a good chap he’d been.”
Ms Bedford’s three brothers served throughout the Second World War in the Navy, one as a bomber pilot and another as a tank commander – Danny survived every major battle before being killed. But to her family, Ms Bedford’s part in the war effort was never known.
“The spirit of the time was incredible,” she said. “We were really fighting with gusto. In some way or another we were all connected – whether you were a coal miner or a transport worker. People were loyal to their country. It was only guts that sent us on.”
After the war, Ms Bedford was offered work as a dispatch driver in the remote village of Nigg in Scotland.
“They wanted to be careful in case I spilled the beans so they sent me right into the bloody Highlands,” she said. “There was one street and five houses in Nigg and it was cold. Lots of people could not deal with that loneliness. But I had no complaints. I had seen the theatre, ballet and dined in the best restaurants in London. I didn’t pay – I was attractive, you see, so it was easy for me.”
Smiling, Ms Bedford recalled becoming “friendly” with officers at a nearby aerial station and how she was taken for spins on planes and even in a submarine.
She left Scotland in 1948 and returned to Wales where she married, before moving to Goldington Street, Somers Town in the 1970s. She later worked as a freelance photojournalist in the Middle East.
Ms Bedford said her many friends and family – dotted across the world and her 92-year-old brother Julian – could expect copies of the New Journal this week. |
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Your comments:
MY mother also worked at GCHQ. She died last month without ever telling her family what she did during the war. We only knew she was in Cheltenham. We found out after her death of the medals being awarded. Her name was Frances Franklin and we are hoping to find out what she did. She maintained she was bound by the Official Secrets Act and never told a soul.
C. Schuller
MY wife and I live in Charlotte, NC. My wife's Mum, Frances Barrell, recently passed away and she too served at Bletchley Park. Frances always remained steadfastly quiet about her WWII service and the family is trying to get her recognized as was this lady Hilary in the article. Frances grew up in E5 Hackney.
J. Schuller
MY mother Frances Irene Lena Barrell (Nee Frnaklin) recently passed away. We knew that during the 2nd World War worked at Hobart House and was transfereed to Cheltenham GCQH. In August when Mum was in hospital - very ill - she was talking about being billeted at the Cheltnham Ladies College and when we asked what she did during the Ware we were told that she was still bound by the Official Secrets Act. We told her that the war ended over 60 years ago and she said she was still bound by the Act. Is there any way that we can find out what she did for the war effort. I understand that she might be entitled to a posthumous award for 'Services to the Country'. Mum passed away on 13th October 2009 at Barnet General Hopital
M.K. Trujillo
I REMEMBER Hilary from the 1970's. I worked in Soho Square for a professional camera company and Hilary visited . A charming and lovely person whose smile lit up my day.
D. Ellis
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