Cracking the code of love: why Bletchley became a hotbed for romance
Directors of Second World War intelligence base fed blossoming relationships to keep workers motivated
BLETCHLEY PARK’S codebreakers were actively encouraged to fall in love with each other because authorities thought that it would help the war effort, a historian has found.
The Second World War base is famed for its success at dismantling German and Japanese codes, which is thought to have shortened the war by two years and saved thousands of lives.
However, it was also “stuffed” with romance which, far from being frowned upon, was encouraged by directors, suggests a leading historian.
Speaking at the Chalke Valley History Festival, Sinclair Mckay said his interviews with the codebreakers who worked there found that the Buckinghamshire base had been a “hotbed of romance”. Mr Mckay said the British female codebreakers were captivated by the American cryptographers who came to help dismantle Nazi Germany’s enigma code.
“The clichés really are true. British women, and Bletchley’s were no exception, were bowled over by the influx of American men,” he said.
Mr Mckay explained how tight security protocols meant each individual codebreaker had little sense of the wider context of their work. Each “hut” did not communicate with other groups for fear of spreading information that could allow an individual to become too well-informed.
Yet the strict rules did not prevent lovers from different huts developing relationships. On the contrary, said Mr Mckay, his research had found the park’s directors encouraged blossoming romances to keep codebreakers happy.
One couple who met there, Mavis Lever and Keith Batey, were even given a dedicated area of the canteen where they could canoodle.
Miss Lever, who later became Mrs Batey, was an accomplished linguist whose talent with the German language led her to work at Bletchley. At the age of 19 she made a significant breakthrough, cracking the Italian naval enigma system and uncovering a plan to attack a Royal Navy convoy.
Mr Mckay said: “I asked Keith and Mavis Batey, whose eyes met across the enigma machine, whether the authorities were concerned about their romance. Mrs Batey said actually no, the authorities did everything in their power to encourage the romance, to the extent of setting up special places in the canteen for them.
“I think they felt that romance was a healthy thing, and it was fantastic to have that in such a pressurised environment. So while there was security, there was also a very real understanding of human psychology.”
At its peak, around 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park, 75 per cent of whom were women. “The romances would make your head spin. The park was stuffed with them,” said Mr Mckay.
He added that another codebreaker, Sheila Mackenzie, a 19-year-old linguist from Scotland, “devoted some of her off-duty hours to Highland dancing, where she met hut six codebreaker Oliver Lawn. What followed was decades of happy marriage.
“Bletchley gave many young women a voice at a time when it was hard for women to be heard professionally.”