«
»

Today at europython we listened to a keynote about Bletchley Park. This was the centre of British and allied codebreaking activities during the second world war, and where the first digital, programmable computer was built, Colossus. We heard about the current financial plight of the museum there, and the need for investment to renovate the huts that amongst others Alan Turing worked in. Dr Sue Black told us about her experiences trying to help lobby the government for more money for Bletchley park, using social networking, blogs and twitter. She recounted that she had recently met an elderly gentleman, one of the surviving codebreakers. She told us how close she felt to history when he related a story about when he was decoding a nazi message during the war, and his shock when he got to the end and discovered the message was signed “Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer”.

As a professional programmer, I think the site where the first digitally programmable computer was built has to be a place worth preserving. I hope that people will be able to visit there and see the reconstructed Colossus computer and be inspired by the stories of innovation and codebreaking that it enabled.

It was particuarly poignant for me to think about this when in the next session I checked my email and found a message from my mother saying that my grandmother died this morning. She was a living link to the history of the second world war for me. During the war she was a wireless operator, transmitting and receiving messages in morse code. And now she is not there any more. I am kind of in shock. But it just confirms for me that we need museums like the one at Bletchley Park to retain contact with our history.

(I wrote this post yesterday)

This entry was posted by Emily Bache on 2009-07-02 at 09:29 under Autobiographical, Experience Report. Tagged . Both comments and pings are currently closed.

5 Comments

  1. tartley says:

    My condolences about your Grandmother – my Granpa passed away two weeks ago, too, so I’ve been feeling some of the same things. Take it easy the next couple of weeks, all the emotion really took the wind out of my sails – much more than I expected or allowed for.

    Thanks very much for the Dojo tutorial at EP, I really got a lot out of the ideas.

    Best regards,

    Jonathan

    2009-07-02, 15:10

  2. David Vrensk says:

    Emily,
    your words touched me enough that I clicked the link to Bletchley Park where I found their donation button on the front page. It’s hard to put a value on history, but I had no trouble parting with £10. I hope more of us do the same.

    2009-07-02, 19:06

  3. Artem Marchenko says:

    I am sorry for your grandma, Emily 🙁
    Unfortunately it happens to all of us earlier or later. My grandma also serves as my personal link to WW II times.

    2009-07-03, 13:25

  4. Ola Berg says:

    –. — -.. … .–. . . -..!

    2009-07-03, 22:46

  5. Emily Bache says:

    Thankyou for all your kind comments. If there ever is a good time for a funeral, it’s probably now, since we were already planning on spending this week with my parents in the UK. So I’m taking a break from work now 🙂

    2009-07-04, 08:51