Mary Dejevsky: Dad and a family secret

"What did you do in the war?" was a question that somehow seemed to elicit an answer only from other people's fathers.

School friends knew about exotic parts of the world from fathers who had served in the Far East. A couple had fathers with lifetime friendships in tiny villages in rural France after serving as liaison officers with the French Resistance. Yet other fathers had trudged through Italy, or been part of the final advance through Germany. They all had tales to tell, as much slow-motion horror ilm as heroics.

With my father, the war was something that wasn't really raised around the kitchen table. My mother would very occasionally mention wartime trysts at Bletchley station, but he never mentioned anything. You might almost have wondered whether he had something to hide. He did. But it wasn't that sort of secret.

As we grew up, we gradually absorbed the fact that his war had been spent first fire-watching as a maths undergraduate at Oxford, then in top-secret intelligence work – code-breaking at Bletchley Park.

He never said a word about what he did there until the first book of memoirs appeared, as I recall, in the 1970s. I bought him a copy as a present; even as he read it, he inveighed against the author for what he regarded as treachery. I don't know what they did to them at Bletchley, but whatever it was, as a lifetime gag it was pretty effective.

His pride in Bletchley's success was matched by an equally restrained resentment that the continuing secrecy meant lack of recognition.

I visited Bletchley Park a year or so ago, as a "tourist". Scrappily tidied up and preserved, in a wonderfully amateurish British way, the site is frozen in that distinctive age of austerity and making-do. Alas, the secrecy that shrouded Bletchley all too quickly became neglect.

Independent Comment
blog comments powered by Disqus
Career Services

Day In a Page

No secularism please, we're British

No secularism please, we're British

Arguments about the role of religion in national life have recently acquired a new urgency
Harold Tillman: 'Chinese tourists can save the high street – if we let them'

Harold Tillman interview

'Chinese tourists can save the high street – if we let them'
Working as a jail torturer ruined my life

Working as a jail torturer ruined my life

Meet the former soldier who has joined the political prisoners he tortured in Turkey's Mamak prison by suing the generals who led a regime of terror
The local high street jet shop

The local high street jet shop

Got a spare $50m and can't stand the queues at Heathrow? Get yourself down to London's first private plane dealership
Do you like your doctor? It could be the death of you

Do you like your doctor?

It could be the death of you...
The mysterious affair of how Agatha Christie is teaching foreigners English

How Agatha Christie is teaching foreigners English

Twenty of the author's novels have been adapted and presented with learning notes and a CD
Six Grammys, five years off: Adele puts love before career

Six Grammys, five years off

Adele puts love before career
The 10 Best binoculars

The 10 Best binoculars

From no-frills to bins with digital cameras
Milan for £300

Milan for £300?

A cultural family holiday - on a budget - to Italy's most stylish city
'Black-hole' resorts: Turn up, tune out, log off

'Black-hole' resorts

Turn up, tune out, log off
New Arsenal face an old question of credibility in San Siro

New Arsenal face an old question of credibility in San Siro

Remodelled since winning in Milan in 2008, for all their consistency – and prize-money – Wenger's side are yet to claim a European title
James Lawton: This prodigal son deserves no forgiveness

James Lawton: This prodigal son deserves no forgiveness

City would be putting their desire to win title ahead of morals if Tevez plays for them
Mark Cavendish: Is Olympic gold at end of the rainbow?

Mark Cavendish interview

Is Olympic gold at end of the rainbow?
Apple admits it has a human rights problem

Apple admits it has a human rights problem

After years of complaints and workers' suicides in China the technology giant faces up to the human cost of its gadgets
Peter Moore: 'I feel guilty I'm the only one alive'

Peter Moore interview

'I feel guilty I'm the only one alive'