Life after Bletchley Park

Today’s speaker was Norman Hodgkin who’s talk was called Life after Bletchley Park.

Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire was the centre of allied code breaking during the Second World War, it helped crack the Enigma code used by the Germans. Alan Turing, Dilly Knox, Bill Tutte and Gordon Welchman were some of GC&CS codebreakers.

It became the Government Communications Headquarters ( GCHQ) moving to Eastcote in 1946 and to Cheltenham in 1951 and moved to a building called the Doughnut in 2004. In the years after the second world war focus turned to the threat from the Soviet Union which remains today even after the break up of the USSR.

The way we keep an eye on countries like Russia and China has changed greatly since Bletchley Park, Drones, Satellites, Mobile phones, Sat nav and Blue tooth devices are all used for surveillance these days. MI6 spies on other counties and MI5 catches spies of other countries.

Bletchley Park was saved from demolition in 1991 and has become a museum of national importance.

Normans talk was fascinating and he finished with a note of caution, just be careful, Someone could be listening.