E07 - Capt. Jerry Roberts MBE

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 21 February 2013

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

February 2013

This month we talk to Captain Jerry Roberts about being awarded an MBE and his 4 year campaign for more recognition for Alan Turing, Bill Tutte and Tommy Flowers.

We have an update from CEO Iain Standen on the Heritage Lottery Funded restoration programme.

Also, an exclusive interview with another Bletchley Park Veteran Nancy Jackson, who worked in the Newmanry, the section led by Alan Turing’s friend and mentor Max Newman.

A message from mcfontaine

This month’s episode has been late due to the death of my step-dad, Mick Chalkley.

There was a really nice connection for me between Bletchley Park and Mick as during World War 2 he served in the Fleet Air Arm. A large part of which was on escort duty on amongst others, the Russian and Malta convoys. I explained to him the work that Bletchley Park did during the war, how by reading U-Boat Enigma traffic they could re-route convoys away from attack. This was something he didn’t know and like me, had no doubt that they must have helped to keep him safe and to live through the war.

#BPark, #JerryRoberts, #Tunny, #HLF

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	M.C. Fontaine here. This episode of the podcast is dedicated to the memory of Mick Chorkeley,
0:06.3	who recently passed away at the age of 92. During World War II, he served in the fleet air arm.
0:12.1	A large part of this, he was on escort duty on the Russian and Malta convoys, amongst others.
0:17.6	He was really fascinated when I explained to him some of the work that Bletchley Park did during the war
0:21.8	and like me he had no doubt that they must have helped
0:25.3	in some way to keep him safe and to live through the war
0:28.0	so that I'd eventually get to call him my stepdad
0:30.9	thank you
0:32.0	I'm going to From the home of the co-breakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.
1:08.2	Welcome to the February edition of the Bletchley Park podcast with me, Catherine Lynch.
1:13.8	Captain Jerry Roberts was a founding member of the testery, who worked with Bill Tut breaking into Lawrence, which the co-breakers called Tunney.
1:21.6	He's been calling for better recognition of what his colleagues achieved for more than four years.
1:26.5	At the turn of the year, he was honoured with an MBE.
1:29.6	We caught up with him at home in Surrey
1:31.4	after being kindly invited for a lavish lunch with him and his wife May.
1:36.2	I asked Captain Roberts how he felt
1:38.1	after more than four years of campaigning
1:40.2	to be honoured for his efforts.
1:48.5	Thank you. to be honoured for his efforts. This is ITV, you understand.
1:52.6	There's been a great deal of interest in recent years
1:55.6	and now recognition of how hard you've worked to generate
1:59.1	and sustain that interest in the MBE?
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Bletchley Park, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Bletchley Park and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.