5th Wednesday with Parters and/or Friends
Wed, Jan 30th 2019 at 7:00 pm - 9:30 pm
Please reserve your place(s).
A talk by Nick Cook entitled
'Bletchley Park - Home of the Codebreakers'.
Pre-Meeting Information about the speaker
NICK COOK was educated at Bedford School and then joined the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Thurleigh (just outside Bedford} on January 2nd 1968 as an Assistant Scientific Officer. He worked there for 25 years rising to Senior Scientific Officer by the time he took voluntary redundancy. The airfield at Bedford was closing and moving to Boscombe Down in Wiltshire......so Nick ' took the large sum of money and ran'.
Nick started a small Courier business providing a service to various organisations, Bedford Hospital being his main contract. This expanded over twenty years, and provided better financial rewards than being a Scientist for the MOD! . He retired five years ago.
In retirement Nick volunteers at Bletchley Park as a Steward and a Guide. He is the Chairman of the Mini Se7en Racing Club, the members of which race the classic Mini around the circuits of Britain and on some occasions in Europe. The Se7en Racing Club is the longest one make Championship in the World, celebrating 53 years of racing in 2019. lease come and hear Nick - you won't be disappointed.
Report on the meeting:
Our speaker on 30th January was Nick Cook from Bletchley Park. This was a "5th Wednesday Dinner Meeting" with partners.
Nick explained the history of the site. The Government bought it for £7500 in 1937. They had been looking for a suitable place away from London for possible need in war time as they felt things were hotting up with Germany. They settled on Bletchley due to it’s place on the mainline from London and also on the Cambridge-Oxford line as they knew that they would need to be recruiting from that type of University background.
Initially there was just the house set in 50 acres of land but huts were added later. The centre started with 105 staff who worked on codes and cyphers.
Strict security was maintained. Staff did not know what work was being done in the neighbouring hut, and they were compelled to keep their wartime work secret until relatively recently.
The Bombe Computer was developed to decipher code created on the German "Enigma" machine. This had been a commercial product in the 1920s, but was adapted by the Germans for military use. Cracking the Enigma code was aided by Polish mathematicians who had an Enigma Machine.
It is estimated that being able to decipher German (and Japanese) coded messages shortened the war by two years and saved many lives.
The site was almost sold for development but was saved by the efforts of Bletchley residents and former codebreakers. The Bletchley Park Trust was formed to save the historic site for the nation, and then the full story of its significance emerged.
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