Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101

Summary

Bletchley code breaker Betty Webb dies aged 101Aida FofanaBBC News, West MidlandsBBCBletchley Park code breaker Betty Webb has died at the age of 101A decorated World War Two code breaker who spent her youth deciphering enemy messages at Bletchley Park has died at the age of 101.Charlotte "Betty" Webb MBE - who was among the last surviving Bletchley code breakers - died on Monday night, the Women's Royal Army Corps Association confirmed.Mrs Webb, from Wythall in Worcestershire, joined operations at the Buckinghamshire base at the age of 18, later going on to help with Japanese codes at The Pentagon in the US. She was awarded France's highest honour - the Légion d'Honneur - in 2021. The Women's Royal Army Corps Association described Mrs Webb as a woman who "inspired women in the Army for decades".Tributes to Mrs Webb have begun to be posted on social media, including one from historian and author Dr Tessa Dunlop who said she was with her in her final hours.Describing Mrs Webb as "the very best", she said on X: "She is one of the most remarkable woman I have ever known."Mrs Webb told the BBC in 2020 that she had "never heard of Bletchley", Britain's wartime code-breaking centre, before starting work there as a member of the ATS, the Auxiliary Territorial Service.Her mother had taught her to speak German as a child and ahead of her posting remembered being "taken into the mansion [at Bletchley] to read the Official Secrets Act"."I realised that from then on there was no way that I was going to be able to tell even my parents where I was and what I was doing until 1975 [when restrictions were lifted]," she recalled.She would tell the family with whom she lodged that she was a secretary.Betty WebbMrs Webb went to work at Bletchley Park when she was 18When the War ended in Europe in May of 1945, she went to work at the Pentagon after spending four years at Bletchley, which with its analysis of German communications had served as a vital cog in the Allies' war machine.At t...