NO MORE SECRETS
Born Charlotte Vine-Stevens in the Hertfordshire village of Richard’s Castle, she was always known as ‘Betty’ because her mother was also called Charlotte.
She claimed to have had an idyllic, albeit sheltered, childhood and was home-educated alongside her brother. Her mother was a gifted linguist and qualified teacher who taught Betty German.
Her mother had been travelling to take up a teaching appointment in Leipzig, Germany, when the First World War broke out. It took her a year to get home to Britain.
Betty said, “My mother always said there’s nothing worse than being in a country not able to speak their language, so we always had German or Swiss nannies – and we spoke German from the word go.”
The family also had a German au pair. Betty was sent on a student exchange to Dresden in Germany, where she quickly became fluent in the language.
Betty was learning to cook, studying Domestic Science in Shrewsbury, when the Second World War broke out. She had found her course boring.
Listening to sounds of the Blitz on the radio, Betty decided to join up as soon as she was able. “I wanted to do something more for the war effort than bake sausage rolls.”
As soon as she turned eighteen, Betty joined the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) – a non-combat unit. She was given six weeks of basic training at the Royal Welch Fusiliers barracks in Wrexham.
Once this was completed, Betty was called to London for an interview – although nobody told her what it was for. However, the interview was conducted entirely in German.
She felt the interviewers grasp of the language was very poor.
Betty was told she had passed the test, given a railway pass, sent to Euston Station and was told to alight at Bletchley Park, in Buckinghamshire. “Of course I had no idea what Bletchley was, but I arrived like hundreds of other women, with just a suitcase.”
Bletchley Park was the codebreaking centre for Britain.
Betty signed the Official Secrets Act, watched by a Senior Intelligence Officer with a gun in his hand. She was told that she was not allowed to let anybody know the nature of her work, even close friends and family, for thirty years. Betty admitted she felt very intimidated. “I was only eighteen. It was quite frightening.”
Betty was not assigned to the huts that were placed throughout the site, but was based in the main mansion, working for Major Ralph Tester’s department, the ‘Government Code and Cypher School’.
Betty received no training whatsoever. She was just told to, “Get on with it.”
She loved working for Major Tester, who was charming and kind, with a razor-sharp mind, “A very kindly man, very gentlemanly and very patient.”
Betty quickly learned the importance of discretion. A very handsome sergeant named Tony Leatham visited the office. After he had left, Betty commented how gorgeous he was.
Tony was standing outside the room. He stuck his head back in and said, “Boo!” After that, Betty kept her counsel.
One senior officer, on hearing her surname said, “I served with a Vine-Stephens in the Middle East in the First World War.” It turned out this was Rex, Betty’s uncle.
She worked in a tiny freezing alongside three other men. When working night shifts, Betty would bank up the fire and wear a thick coat – but could never get her feet warm.
The office was known as the ‘Testery’.
She became involved in the Enigma project, the attempt to decode encrypted radio messages from Germany. Betty’s job was to catalogue every communication from the German Army, Military Police and the SS.
She did this by registering each one on cards (approximately ten thousand a day) and keeping them in shoeboxes – in strict order so any message could be retrieved instantly if required. Initially, Betty found the work repetitive and dull – “It was pretty boring but it had to be done.” She realised the work was vital.
Betty earned ten shillings and sixpence a week. It was the first money she had ever earned herself.
Initially, she was billeted in the village of Oxley, at Salisbury House (nowadays this area is part of Milton Keynes). The accommodation was poor, and Betty was forced to share a bed with another recruit called Biddy.
Later on, Betty lodged with a local family in another village called Loughton – and they treated her as one of the family.
There was a very active social life. Betty joined the Bletchley Park gramophone society, the Madrigal club and the Bach Choir. There were dances with a professional orchestra.
Betty also joined the Recreation Club and played table tennis, badminton and chess. She also learned to play darts.
When Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, visited Bletchley Park, he noticed there were no tennis courts. They were quickly constructed.
The food at Bletchley was basic. “It was a case of survival and you just accepted what was put in front of you…but we didn’t want for anything.”
Betty would ride her bike around local villages in the summer, although all the signposts had been taken down, so she frequently lost her way.
Just occasionally, she would go to a restaurant or café with friends, although on one such visit Betty had ordered beans on toast, when the waitress tripped and spilled it all over her.
What she loved about her time at the park was mixing with other people from all walks of life – “Some eccentric, some brilliant.” Everybody got on together, united by a common cause, although nobody ever talked about their work.
She said, “We worked hard and we played hard.”
She was certain she had never knowingly seen Alan Turing, although she commented that it was well-known that because of his acute asthma, Turing would always wear a gas mask whilst cycling to work.
Throughout the war, approximately ten thousand people worked at Bletchley Park, the majority of them women.
As the workers at the park were not allowed to reveal their whereabouts, a false address in London was used, manned by one clerk. Following instructions, she told friends and family this was where she worked.
Betty was told that on one occasion her Canadian boyfriend had turned up for a surprise date, only to find a bemused, bespectacled clerk.
Betty was so efficient that she was moved from the German section to the Japanese section, based in Block F and nicknamed ‘Burma Road’ – even though she didn’t speak the language. which was concentrating upon Japan. Her job was to intercept messages from the Far East. This was particularly challenging until she learned Japanese.
She had to deliberately paraphrase Japanese messages so that the enemy didn’t know their codes had been broken. “We had to make it sound as though it was information that we’d picked up from spies or stolen documents or aerial reconnaissance… The fact we’d broken both German and Japanese military codes was a closely guarded secret, known only to a very few people.”
Betty’s reputation was such that eventually the Americans ‘borrowed’ her after VE Day, and she was sent to work at the Pentagon in Virginia.
However, Betty was told she was being sent to India. She waited for travel documents, but nothing happened for over a month. When she enquired as to what was going on, it was discovered the details for her trip had been sent to Bletchley Park but nobody had bothered to open the envelope.
It was only at this point Betty learned that she was being sent to the United States.
Betty flew to the States in a Sunderland Flying Boat. It was the first time she had ever been in a plane and she admitted she was terrified. The flight lasted thirty hours.
Betty was the only member of the ATS seconded to the USA. However, she did find one other English woman working there – a girl whose father was the vicar of Leighton Buzzard (very close to Bletchley).
Once in Washington DC, she sent her parents a postcard. “I’m sure they must have wondered what I was doing, but of course they never asked, and anyway I could never tell them.”
She found the heat and humidity almost unbearable – a real contrast to freezing at Bletchley.
Betty was surprised to find there was quite a lot of prejudice against the British. Some people felt Great Britain was over-reliant on American assistant. However, once she settled in, she began to enjoy herself.
Betty loved the social life: cocktail parties, concerts and the ballet. She was also very impressed by the jukebox, something she had never seen in England.
She remembered the delight of her co-workers when the atomic bombs were dropped in August 1945 and Japan surrendered. “Steaks and parties everywhere.”
She added, “It was only later that the horror of the radiation and deaths sunk in.”
Years later, reflecting on her American experience, Betty said, “It did me a lot of good. It taught me about life. In a way it was like a university and I met a lot of very nice people. I feel honoured to have been there.”
At the end of the war, Betty was sent back to Bletchley to be decommissioned.
Winston Churchill called the Bletchley Park workers, “The geese that laid the golden egg but never cackled.”
Her family continued to have no idea about Betty’s contribution to the war effort, although Betty believed her father suspected her role.
It was very difficult for ex-Bletchley Park workers to find employment after the war. They had no references and could not explain what they had done throughout the war. Betty struggled to get work.
She finally got a position working as a secretary at Ludlow Grammar School. The Headmaster had also been at Bletchley Park, recognized her and gave her the job – although neither of them ever spoke about their time there.
In 1955, Betty joined the Territorial Army (TA), eventually rising to become the Chief Recruiting Officer for Shropshire.
Betty married Alfred Webb in 1970. They lived in the Worcestershire village of Wythall – and Betty eventually became Vice Chair of the Parish Council.
In 1975 the restrictions imposed under the Official Secrets Act were lifted, and Betty could finally tell people what she had done during the war.
Betty learned that the constraints had been removed whilst on Temple Street in Birmingham. She was walking past the Law Society when a woman who had been at Bletchley with her, rushed out and grabbed her arm. She shouted, “It’s out – We can talk about it.”
Betty admitted, “It was a strange feeling to know you could tell people about it.”
She added, “Both my parents had died by then, so they never knew.”
This led to Betty eventually writing an autobiography entitled ‘No More Secrets’. In it, she claimed her time working at Bletchley was, “The best time of my life.”
She also gave over two hundred talks about her work as a codebreaker.
Betty was awarded an MBE in 2015 for, ‘Services to remembering and promoting the work of Bletchley Park’.
In 2020, Betty became an Ambassador of ‘Operation Bletchley’, which raised money for the Army Benevolent Fund through walking and codebreaking challenges. She helped raise thousands of pounds for charity.
The following year, the French Government made Betty a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur – and she moved to Worcester.
In 2023, Betty was invited to the coronation of King Charles 3rd. She was amazed to find herself seated in the front row.
A few days later, Betty turned one hundred. There was a big party held for her in the ballroom at Bletchley Park, which included a fly-past by an Avro Lancaster bomber.
In an interview just before her death, Betty said, “My life has been extraordinary. I have an MBE and also the Legion d’Honneur. But mainly I have my memories – and it’s all thanks to Bletchley.”
RIP – Recruited Into Pentagon
