MY BLETCHLEY SARAH HARDING
When I was young, one of the first things I was taught was how to spell my name in Morse code, and my mother would tell me stories about being in signals during the war. In the 1970s I watched a television play called The Imitation Game, set in Bletchley Park, about a young woman Codebreaker. I knew nothing about the place, and said to my mother: ‘Is that anything like your war?’ She said: ‘I was there, that’s where I did my signals.’ Gradually, I understood the tremendous importance of Bletchley Park. She’d been a housewife and mother like the women in The Bletchley Circle, and she came alive when she talked about the war. I started asking her about it, but I think it’s very difficult to remember the details: after the war they were told to bury it and wipe it. This year the script for The Bletchley Circle landed on my desk without anyone knowing there was any connection. It was like two sides coming together. When researching, I went to a talk given by a Veteran in Devon. I told him my mother 48
‘I just hope it makes my mother feel recognised and proud’ was at Bletchley Park and asked how I could find out more. He said to look on the Roll of Honour, so I went on the website, and there she was, Dorothy Mary Thompson. It confirmed she was there between 1943 and 1945. She was a young woman who had actually left school at 15; she wasn’t a clever university Codebreaker. I always thought everyone at Bletchley Park was an Oxbridge mathematician, but I’ve now realised there were a lot of very bright women there whose skills were based on absolute accuracy and focus. One of the things that mother always did, apart from Morse code, was play piano and sing alto in a choir. That was the other thread – the musical ear.
From the Roll of Honour, I found that you could apply for a badge and certificate. Just after my mother’s 90th birthday, I filled in the application, and this year they arrived. She said: ‘What’s all this about? I didn’t do anything.’ I told her it said ‘David Cameron thanks you for your effort’, and that she hadn’t just been a housewife and mother. She had contributed, because everybody’s skills counted. I think The Bletchley Circle is a real gift to those women, because it’s valuing what they did. It is about Bletchley Park, but it’s also about women of that generation and what society did to them. Instead of recognising their skills, they were just told to go back to their pigeonholes. I was thrilled to be asked to be a part of it. The characters aren’t just patting themselves on the back; they’re rolling up their sleeves and getting on with it. You’re invited as an audience to share a secret world. I just hope it makes my mother feel recognised and proud.
Shaun Armstrong © www.mubsta.com
After discovering that her mother had worked in signals during the war, Sarah Harding was approached to direct an ITV series about Bletchley Park Veterans turned sleuths. She spoke to the Bletchley Park Podcast about the coming together of her mother’s story and helping to create The Bletchley Circle
Sarah Harding was speaking to Katherine Lynch, the Bletchley Park Trust’s Media Manager
Bletchley Park Magazine
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