BLETCHLEY PARK D-DAY EXHIBIT PERSONAL FOR KATE
CATHERINE, the Duchess of Cambridge, has travelled to the old home of Britain’s World War II codebreakers, where her own grandmother worked, to visit an exhibition marking the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy.
The historic site in Milton Keynes is where mathematician Alan Turing cracked Nazi Germany’s “unbreakable” Enigma code.
D-Day: Interception, Intelligence, Invasion, held in the Teleprinter Building where codebreakers worked on intercepted messages, features an immersive film, shown on a giant curved screen, based on newly declassified information showing how Bletchley Park helped in the planning of the allied landings in France on June 6, 1944. Kate was shown a new memorial wall which contained the names of those who were veterans of the war who served at Bletchley Park.
The wall contained commemorative bricks, featuring the names of her grandmother, Valerie Glassborow, and her twin sister, Mary, who both worked at the code- breaking facility during the war.
“She was sworn to secrecy and she found it very difficult to talk about,” the Duchess said of her grandmother.