While I understand the mental process of someone who was actually there at the time, I also have to say that there comes a time when the principles no longer apply, and (I have to add, provided it’s legal) stories should be told – while they still CAN be told.
It’s taken a long time for much of the material surrounding the work at Bletchley Park to be uncovered, and the stories of some of the most secret development there to be told.
I’m thinking of the work of, for example, someone such as Tommy Flowers, and his work on Colossus.
I still shudder when I think of Churchill’s order to smash everything after World War II ended, to make sure the next enemy could not get their hands on any of the technology.
Then we learn that not only was Colossus not smashed, but half a dozen of them survived and were secretly in use during the Cold War.
World War II ended in 1945, that as a long time ago, and those who contributed to its ending need proper recognition, not just the lucky famous few who have been credited to the birth of computing and programming so far.
I’m afraid I have to say this ‘silence’ is just no longer appropriate, and far from doing a service to anyone, will be doing a disservice to many.
A 95-year-old veteran who worked as a codebreaker at Bletchley Park in World War Two has said she will take her secrets to the grave.
Margaret Wilson, who was part of a team that recorded German radio transmissions, said she did not tell her family about her work until recently.
Mrs Wilson, from Shirebrook in Derbyshire, said her great regret was not telling her late husband.
Codebreaker, 95, still keeping Bletchley Park secrets
Bletchley Memorial 2013 © Roger Davies via geograph The memorial consists of two slabs of Caithness stone one with the wording ‘We also served’ and the other with a sculpted list of 25 of the some 300 outstations that existed across the globe
Secret Scotland 