The Debs of Bletchley Park and Other Stories by Michael Smith Read Free Book Online Page A

because I think a lot of people had billets where the sanitary facilities were not very good.’
    Jane was billeted in a lorry driver’s house right in themiddle of Bletchley itself. He drove for the London Brick Company and their works were just behind the house.
They were overshadowed by large brick chimneys ‘belching out horrible raucous smoke’, one of which towered right above them. ‘It really was disgusting.’ The town itself was
a major railway junction and the fast trains to and from Scotland shook the whole house. The lorry driver and his wife were kind and hospitable but with Jane frequently working night shifts, she
found it impossible to sleep.
    ‘The room they gave me was a cupboard really with a tiny window. They had two little boys who were quite noisy and I, of course, was on the night shift a lot of the time. So I
couldn’t really sleep when the boys were at home and it was about as uncomfortable a place as I’ve ever slept in.’
    As the work in Hut 6 built up, Jane found herself increasingly tired and soon became very run-down. Her father was very worried about her and eventually one of his friends, Sir Reginald Bonsor,
said his country home wasn’t that far from Bletchley. Most of the servants had been called up so they had plenty of spare rooms. Why didn’t Jane come and stay with them?
    ‘I was transferred to this very grandiose Elizabethan house and they happened to have rather a lot of rooms empty because they had lost pretty much the whole of their staff. So I was able
to move in about half a dozen of my friends, and that became much more jolly, of course.’
    The mansion was at Liscombe Park, eight miles south of Bletchley. Jane and her friends, along with all the other people living in billets, were taken into Bletchley at the start of each shift by
buses or large estate cars, known as shootingbrakes, which were driven by members of the FANY, or the Motor Transport Corps, a volunteer organisation made up of young women.
Barbara Abernethy’s ability to organise the early entertainment like the rounders matches had been spotted and she’d been moved from the Naval Section into administration, coordinating
things like transport.
    ‘The Motor Transport Corps drivers were really very attractive girls. They were usually quite wealthy and they had to buy their own uniforms, which were beautifully cut, and they were all
very pretty. But they worked very, very hard.’
    The only problem with living in a country mansion for Jane and her friends was that when they were going on the night shift they had to wend their way along a dark drive and even darker country
lanes shrouded in high hedges and trees to get to the transport pick-up point.
    ‘So one had to get to the right place and be confident that the driver had been told by the previous driver exactly where they were to pick you up. We felt a bit vulnerable and I was
accused of taking a hammer with me, although actually it was a torch which was far more useful.’
    They then did the rounds of surrounding villages picking up other people in various houses, cottages and pubs, which took a considerable time and cut into the amount of time they had off.
    ‘But otherwise it was a wonderful place to live. We had lovely rooms, of course, and very beautiful gardens, and one was able to relax in a quite different extent to being in the heart of
Bletchley.’
    Occasionally, Lady Bonsor invited them down for properdinner parties. Pretty young women were always welcome when young officers back from the war were being feted.
    ‘That was quite a do, because they had a cook left behind when all the others were called up, so they had very good food and we really enjoyed ourselves. Very unlike a lot of people who
were in rather horrible billets.’
    The invasion of France in May 1940 was to bring a swift victory for the Germans and a humiliating defeat for the French and British forces, but it provided Bletchley with a
major success that