The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Helene’s wartime honour
Award: Legion d’Honneur for Aberdeen graduate’ s role at Bletchley Park
She was just 21 when she was recruited from Aberdeen University to join the crucial work being done at Bletchley Park.
And now, 98-yearold former codebreaker Helene Aldwinkle has been presented with the insignia of Knight of the Legion d’Honneur – France’s highest civilian and military honour. It was back in 1942 the then Helene Taylor left Scotland for only the third time in
“She played an important part in UK-US intelligence sharing”
her life, travelled to a place she did not know and lived with complete strangers, to do work which she could not even be told about until after she had arrived.
She was chosen by a senior codebreaker, Stuart Milner-Barry, to work in Bletchley Park’s Hut 6, the department tasked with deciphering Enigma messages sent by the German army and air force.
After a year of working to register German Enigma-enciphered messages, she was asked to train US personnel on the secrets of codebreaking. In doing so, she played an important part in cementing the British-American intelligence sharing agreement which endures to this day.
From 1944 until the end of the war, she worked in a section of Hut 6 called the Quiet Room, where she identified the various Enigma radio networks, and analysed radio signals’ preambles and sign-offs.
Hut 6 played a crucial role in the lead-up to the Normandy invasion. In a short speech during the ceremony, Nicolas WuestFamose, first secretary at the French embassy, said: “The Legion d’Honneur expresses righteousness, honour, heroism and excellence”.
Mrs Aldwinkle’s children Richard, Diana, Linda and Pam, grandchildren Jack and Elena, the staff of Ryelands Care Home, and representatives of the Bletchley Park Trust and GCHQ helped her celebrate at the ceremony.
And during her final question time in the Commons, former prime minister Theresa May also thanked Mrs Aldwinkle.