Honouring the secret war women of Bletchley Park

Ms Midgley, Dr Waugh and Dr Sutherland said they can "honour" the women and give them the recognition they "deserved"

An exhibition on women who were secretly enrolled into war intelligence work will return later this year.

The names of 77 former Newnham College students recruited to Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, during the Second World War were uncovered after five years of research.

Three Newnham women pieced together information that had been hidden for decades.

They made the discovery through teamwork, like "the sort that happened at Bletchley".

Newnham principal and fellows in 1936, with Pernel Strachey (front row, 3rd from left), Alda Milner-Barry (middle row, 4th from left), and Dorothy Garrod (back row, 3rd from left)

Women from the all female Newnham College, part of Cambridge University, were sworn to secrecy on the roles they played at the code-breaking centre.

Mathematicians, linguists, historians, classicists, musicians and more were secretly recruited by women in the college who had links to men working at Bletchley Park.

Alumna Dr Sally Waugh, historian and Fellow Emerita Dr Gillian Sutherland, and college archivist Frieda Midgley, worked together to make the discovery.

Dr Waugh told the BBC: "It has been very exciting and one of the things we have enjoyed is working together because we are so different.

"The three of us have total different backgrounds and ways of doing things, yet we could not have done this without each other.

"It has been teamwork, like the sort that happened at Bletchley".

'Made the tea'

Dr Waugh said she had met a Bletchley worker, Jane Monroe, who told her she "made the tea".

It was not until later that Dr Waugh discovered Ms Monroe was a Hut 6 codebreaker.

Dr Sutherland said this was typical for the women and more names could yet be uncovered.

"Some of these women came out with references that tell you absolutely nothing quite deliberately," she said.

"If they wanted to work they couldn't point to the achievements of their war work, it just said 'fulfilled her duties to utter satisfaction' which could mean anything.

Dr Waugh added: "We have enjoyed honouring these women, they haven't been honoured before because it was secret.

"They didn't have the profile that women have these days, a profile they deserved."

Newnham principal Pernel Strachey wrote to Commander Alastair Denniston about recruiting alumnae to Bletchley

Three women: Alda Milner-Barry, Pernel Strachey and Ray Strachey (née Costelloe), brought women into Bletchley Park through their personal links.

Ms Milner-Barry had been a fellow and vice-principal and her brother Stuart was a member of one of the government code and cypher school huts.

Pernel Strachey was Newnham principal and her brother, Oliver, was a cryptanalyst, an expert in deciphering coded messages.

He was married to alumna Ray Strachey, who ran the Women’s Employment Federation, and in 1939 was asked to draw up an emergency register of women with specialist experience.

During the war they helped recruit women, some alumnae and others students, who played a crucial role in deciphering Enigma.

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Archivist Ms Midgley said there had been huge interest in the exhibition from a range of age groups.

She said: "We have had a few people come with stories of their own about their family members who came to Bletchley.

"There will be many other opportunities for people to come and see this too."

'Teamwork'

Newnham principal, Alison Rose said: “I am so grateful to Dr Sally Waugh for the curiosity and research which led to this exhibition, and to Dr Gill Sutherland and Frieda Midgley whose historical and archival skills completed the team effort.

"Teamwork helped recruit Newnhamites to Bletchley Park in the 1930s and 1940s.

"Teamwork has revealed for us today the previously unsung and secret contribution of these women to the war effort."

The exhibition can be seen again in September at the Open Cambridge event.