E93 - The GPO and GC&CS

Bletchley Park

History

4.8 • 177 Ratings

🗓️ 23 July 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

July 2019

Most people now know of the work carried out by Tommy Flowers and his team that ultimately led to the design and construction of ‘Colossus’, the world’s first large-scale electronic digital computer. Flowers worked for the General Post Office at their Research Station at Dollis Hill but that work was just one part of the connection between the GPO and the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park.

With the opening this year of our new exhibition, D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion, that link with the modern GPO, British Telecom now called BT, continues.

In this episode our research historian, Dr David Kenyon, sat down with the Head of Heritage and Archives for BT, David Hay, to talk about our shared history.

Also in this episode we bring you something very special indeed. In 1981 at the modern equivalent of Dollis Hill, Adastral Park, Tommy Flowers and some of his original team gave a talk about their wartime work and thanks to BT we can bring you highlights of that reunion.

BT is the Sole and Exclusive Corporate Partner of the restoration of Teleprinter Building and the Exclusive and Sole Partner of the Exhibition.

Image: ©BT ref TCB 638/RES 23706-05 Tommy Flowers & Team 1981 reunion

#BPark, #Bletchleypark, #WW2, #DDay75, #BT

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 this additional episode of the Bletchley Park podcast. Welcome to this additional episode of the Bletchley Park podcast, the GPO and GCCS.
0:45.8	Most people now know of the work carried out by Tommy Flowers and his team that led to the
0:49.8	designer construction of Colossus, the world's first large-scale electronic digital computer.
0:55.8	Flowers worked for the General Post Office at their research station at Dollis Hill,
0:59.7	but that work was just one part of the connection between the GPO and the co-breakers at Bletchley
1:04.8	Park during World War II. With the opening this year of our new exhibition, D-Day, Interception
1:10.7	Intelligence Invasion, that link with the modern GPO of our new exhibition, D-Day Interception Intelligence Invasion,
1:12.3	that link with the modern GPO, British Telecom, now BT, continues.
1:17.7	In this episode, our research historian Dr David Kenyon sat down with the head of heritage and archives for BT, David Hay,
1:24.6	to talk about our shared history.
1:27.5	Also, in this episode, we bring you something very special indeed.
1:31.6	In 1981, at the modern equivalent of Dollars Hill, at Astral Park,
1:35.9	Tommy Flowers and some of his original team gave a talk about their wartime work.
1:40.2	And thanks to BT, we can bring you highlights of that reunion.
1:43.2	Thank you. And thanks to BT, we can bring you highlights of that reunion.
1:58.5	We've talked previously on this podcast about the new D-Day exhibition we have here at Bletchley,
2:01.7	which is very generously supported by BT.
2:05.9	So, David, what's the connection between BT and Bletchley Park?
2:09.8	Well, the connection between BT and Bletchley Park is a long one.
2:14.5	For many people in BT, the main connection used to be the fact that this whole site,
	...

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