Code wireless operator war hero, 94, dies

A WOMAN whose SecondWorld War work was honoured by David Cameron has died at the age of 94.

Dorothy Furness worked as a wireless operator for a codebreaking station but kept her wartime duties quiet from her family for many years.

It was only when her grandson Pete found out about her role at RAF Mere Branston in Lincolnshire that she began to share her stories.

The RAF base was directly linked to the codebreaking centre Bletchley Park, where national hero Alan Turing cracked coded Nazi messages.

The work of all the staff who worked at the centre was recently recognised by the UK Government for the vital role they played.

And when Pete, of Meikle Wartle in Aberdeenshire, discovered the importance of the work his grandmother carried out, he applied for the Bletchley Medal on her behalf last year.

Mrs Furness was based at RAF Mere Branston from 1943 until 1946.

Recalling her work after she was honoured by the prime minister last year, she said: “We didn’t realise at the time we were doing such important work. We were just one of many. We took down the code messages and they were relayed through a special key back to Bletchley, and couldn’t be intercepted.”

After the war, the mother of two met her husband Norman, who had served as a bomber pilot, in a shop in Teesside.

They married on March 11, 1950, and went on to have two sons, Graham and Tony, who were later followed by five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Dorothy moved to Insch in Aberdeenshire after her husband died in 2004.