Codebreaker pair vow to take secrets to the grave

TWO women who spent the war breaking codes have vowed never to break their 69-year vow of silence.

Both Joan Patry, of Portland Road, and Mary Watkins, of St Agnes Road, swore to secrecy in 1940 when they started the important work at Bletchley Park.

The pair say they have never considered breaking their vow - even keeping their own husbands and children in the dark.

The women both worked at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, cracking codes for the government - Joan in the Japanese section and Mary in the German section.

However the two women didn't know of each other until a chance meeting in West Hoathly around 12 years ago.

Mary, 89, joined the war effort in February 1940 and was told she could be part of three departments; cookery, orderly or clerical.

She said: "I naturally asked for clerical duties. They asked whether I was interested in quizzes and crosswords, which I loved."

Mary, who had just turned 19 when the war started, was based at Bow Manor in Leicester, an outstation, before being stationed at Bletchley Park to help crack enemy codes, in late 1941.

She said: "We didn't ask and we weren't told anything. I followed completely what I was asked to do. We were given the work to do and no-one ever knew what happened. We were only allowed to know what we were told.

"I knew it was important work. We had to work through a lot of rubbish before we found anything important and even then we didn't know if it was important."

Joan, 90, already worked for the government in the pensions office when she switched to the war effort.

At the interview she was asked if she liked chess, puzzle solving and if she was good at maths.

She said: "So many people in those days were illiterate. They wanted you if you had some education. They said pack your case for a long stay.

"I had to take the secrecy oath and we were told we had to take what we heard in Bletchley Park to the grave. They told us if we spoke a word about what were doing to anyone we would be sent to prison or worse.

"The work was very repetitive, doing the same thing day after day and we didn't know why we were doing it."

The pair were recently awarded for their work, receiving a commemorative badge and certificate from Prime Minister Gordon Brown.