The

The From the home of the co-breakers and the birthplace of modern computing, this is the Bletchley Park podcast.

Welcome to another Bletchley Park podcast extra.

This week we bring you the visit to the park by the Foreign Secretary, the Right Honourable William Hague.

He was given a tour of Bletchley Park and two of our veterans, Gene Valentine and Ruth Bourne, gave him a demonstration of the bomb rebuild.

He spent some time with a number of veterans before making a speech

with a very special announcement for the future of Bletchley Park.

He was introduced by the chairman of the Bletchley Park Trust, Sir John Scarlett.

Foreign Secretary, ladies and gentlemen, please accept from me a very warm welcome here to

Bletchley Park. You'll shortly going to hear wise words from the Foreign Secretary, which you

will all be listening to very carefully. Very quick, scene-setting comments from me. You were here in Fletchney Park

in the mansion house. This house and the estate was purchased under the authority of the

second chief of the Secret Intelligence Service in 1938 as a fallback house in the event of

severe bombing in London.

The work that went on here throughout the war went under the ultimate authority of the third chief of the security intelligence service.

And of course, it then became, it was, the direct predecessor and foundation of the modern GCHQ, that vital national

asset that we benefit from today.

The line of descent is direct.

It's a unique and inspiring place to be on this site, to work on this site, and to assist the promotion of this

place. Quite exceptional intelligence, outstanding intelligence work was done here during the war,

which made without question a major contribution to the victory of the Allies in the war,

and in particular enabled the war to end earlier than in what otherwise have done and just think what that means.

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