164 | 15 THE wORlD’S fIRST COmPUTER OPERATORS
our own mugs in preference to the metal mugs we were issued with. The food was just about
edible. At Bletchley Park we ate in the Mansion with the Foreign Office personnel at first, and
the food was good. When there became too many of us, however, they built some huts near our
block and we ate there. The food was grim. I found it difficult to eat on night watch and never
became used to eating at such hours. Instead of going to the canteen, we would often walk out of
the main gate and down a side alley to Bletchley Station. At the end of one of the platforms was
a NAAFI hut and we would eat buns and drink a decent cup of tea before walking back. Better
than cold liver and prunes: I did not eat another prune for over 30 years.
Most of the buildings at Woburn Abbey had been commandeered by the WRNS. The Foreign
Office had the stables at the rear of the buildings—also hush-hush. The Duke of Bedford was
fearful that fire might destroy the Abbey, so at night when not on duty we had to take it in turns,
two at a time, to patrol the building for two hours. We patrolled in the dark, holding torches. I
hated doing this—it was very eerie.
The Duke lived in a house in the grounds and he would come and have a look around every
now and then to make sure that everything was all right. All the family pictures and furniture
were stored away in another wing of the Abbey. Some of my friends had a lovely cabin on the
ground floor, which I recognized when I went back many years later: it is now a dining room,
hung with yellow silk and a magnificent collection of Canaletto paintings. The park was mag-
nificent too, with seven lakes and several herds of rare deer. I loved the view from our cabin
window.
There were very few officers at the Abbey, and none of them (not even the officer in charge)
had any idea of the work that we did. I remember that when we first went there, if we had a
Sunday off watch, we were expected to join the church parade and march two miles to the
Woburn village church and back. Later on, the First Officer was warned that we were under ter-
rific pressure at work and was told not to stress us unnecessarily. After that I do not remember
going to church. Discipline became more relaxed.
The day after we arrived at the Abbey, we were driven into Bletchley Park in an old army
transport bus with a soldier at the wheel. The bus stopped at the main gate and we all got out
and showed our passes. We were told to wait outside the Mansion. From there we were escorted
past a tennis court and past some hideous low concrete buildings—we later learned that they
were bomb proof. Journey’s end was Block F, another grim concrete building.
Initiation
Max Newman himself met us at the entrance to Block F, introducing himself and welcoming
us. We were taken into a long low room with a large blackboard and long tables. Mr Newman
took his position in front of the blackboard and we all sat at the tables. He had a very pleasant
manner and put us at our ease. He told us that this section had only recently been set up and that
we would be working with mathematicians and engineers. He said he had specifically asked for
Wrens to staff the section, run the machines, and organize the Registry office.
For a fortnight we went in every day and he lectured us on a new type of binary mathemat-
ics that he would write up on the blackboard. We were shown the tapes that were used on the
machines we would soon become so familiar with—these tapes were an inch wide and very
strong. They had a continuous row of small sprocket holes running along the centre of the
tape, and these were used to drive it through the machinery. We had to learn the alphabet