Elizabeth Marshall - A Very, Very Secret Place

May 2014

When Elizabeth Marshall, nee Tatham, was recruited to Bletchley Park in 1944, she was told “This is a very, very secret place. You must never breathe a word of what you do here.”

Every one of the ten thousand or so men and women who worked for the Government Code and Cypher School, a mixture of military and civilians, was sworn to lifelong secrecy. During a visit to Bletchley Park, Elizabeth recalled “We were told ‘your family and your friends must not know.’ We sat there absolutely agog, wondering what we had let ourselves in for.”

Her parents died soon before the veil of secrecy was lifted in 1974. She says “I was absolutely horrified, I don’t mind telling you. My great friend rang me up and said ‘Have you heard, they’re talking all about Bletchley. It’s all over the papers.’ I said ‘What! We were told never to talk about it.’ I still find it extremely hard to take in that everything that was locked in my head for so long is now common knowledge.”

You can hear the full interview with Elizabeth in the May episode of the Bletchley Park Podcast

https://audioboo.fm/boos/2149628-the-bletchley-park-podcast-e22-a-very-very-secret-place

The Bletchley Park Trust is dependent on Veterans themselves and their relatives to register for their rightful place on the Roll of Honour. The Trust is also in a race against time to gather Veterans’ memories first hand in its Oral Archive.

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/news/v.rhtm/FindaCodebreaker-719559.html

Picture: ©Bletchley Park Trust

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