Britain Listening – How Bletchley Park helped win World War 2 Course
For those interested in history and heritage
Bletchley Park was a typical British country house and estate in Buckinghamshire which few had heard of until the early 1990s. Yet, it was a key part in the allied victory over the Axis Powers during World War 2. Only recently has the true story of the work of the people there been able to be told.
The site was a key part of allied code breaking, but also so much more. The birth of computing which transformed the world during the postwar period started at Bletchley. As did the British electronics industry. Plus, major sea changes in global telecommunications which we are so reliant on in the twenty-first century.
In this course, historian Dr. Richard Marks will take you on a journey through the history of the ‘Government Code & Cypher School’. You will discover what was done there, and the people who did it. The course will also look at how Bletchley fitted into British intelligence and worked alongside organisations such as SOE, MI6 and the American OSS in Europe, North Africa and the Far East.
Find out what ‘The Bombe’, ‘Lorenz’, ‘Ultra’ were, and who some of the unknown people working in the shadows were.
This is a four week face-to-face course with sessions on: July 11th & 25th and August 1st & 8th. All sessions run from 11am – 1pm. The venue is the Society's new centre at the University of Reading's London Road Campus. The campus is well served by public transport, there is also free parking on Saturdays.
Pre-booking is required.
Image: Bletchley Park, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
About Berkshire Family History Society
This course is organised by Berkshire Family History Society CIO, a registered charity number 1204390.
