E115 - Oral History 2020

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2020

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

December 2020

At the end of each year we like to focus on the important work that our Oral History Officer Jonathan Byrne and his team of staff and volunteers carry out. As with so many around the world, COVID-19 has had a huge effect on the work of Jonathan’s team in 2020.

In this episode we catch-up with Jonathan for an update on the Oral History Project and he shares four more highlights from our archive of 550 interviews.

Gwen Adsley was a civilian working in the Communications Section from 1942. Food, or the lack of it, is an abiding memory for her so being able to get an unexpected loaf of bread was a real pleasure.

Trixie Davison wanted to do her bit after the Blitz on London and become a Radar Operator so left her Civil Service job and joined the ATS. A problem with her eyesight meant she was transferred to work at Kedleston Hall and Forest Moor Y stations as an intercept operator.

Roy Maycock was 6 years old on the day that war was declared and living in what was then the village of Bletchley. During the war his family had both children evacuated from London and Bletchley Park staff billeted on them.

Molly Morgan wanted to serve her country, so defying her father’s wishes, resigned from her reserved occupation at The Bank of England and joined the WRNS. Instead of a posting by the sea she was sent to Buckinghamshire to work in the Naval Section alongside Frank Birch.

We would like to wish all our listeners a safe and Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year for 2021.

Image courtesy of Gwen Adsley

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2,

Transcript

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0:00.0	The
0:07.0	The From the home of the codebreakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:38.7	Welcome to the December 2020 episode of the Bletchley Park podcast.
0:44.4	Oral History 2020.
0:47.5	At the end of every year, we like to catch up with Jonathan Byrne, our oral history officer,
0:53.3	and he normally tells us how many dozens
0:56.1	and dozens and dozens of interviews he's carried out this year and which ones have stood out
1:00.2	for him. And we bring you a selection of those interviews, or if we're trying to focus on a certain
1:04.4	topic or subject. I have Jonathan with me. We're sat at Bletchley Park in the archive now, but you, as with many
1:13.4	other people, haven't been here most of the year, have you?
1:16.4	That's true. It's been a funny year. I've actually not been here since April, from April to
1:21.5	mid-October. I was on furlough, like many people at Bletchley Park, and then came back in
1:26.6	October, been back for three
1:28.1	weeks and it all started again where I was at least working part of the time for a month
1:32.5	and here we are now in December and hopefully back to normal for a while. Well let's hope so. Yes,
1:38.9	I was a bit shocked when you emailed me a few weeks ago and said, oh, I'm back. So I knew I'd be
1:43.5	able to sit here with you.
1:44.5	But obviously, 2020 has taken a toll on the oral history. But let's start on the positive.
1:52.1	January and February this year, how did the year start?
1:54.9	Started pretty well. By the end of February, which was the last face-to-face interview we did,
1:59.3	we had done 12 interviews. And that's pretty good going, isn't it? That's pretty good for January and February, which was the last face-to-face interview we did, we had done 12 interviews. And that's pretty good going, isn't it?
2:02.6	That's pretty good for January and February because it's usually a fairly quiet time.
	...

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