Bletchley Park

The two Sue Blacks!!

I was delighted to finally meet the “other Sue Black” a few months ago at Dundee University ❤️ we’ve known each other for years online but never met in person until Sue invited me up to Dundee as a digital expert.

We are often mistaken for each other, I’m a computer scientist and Sue is a forensic scientist, and congratulated for each other’s work 🤣

It was so wonderful to meet, I’m really looking forward to next time.

Honorary Doctorate from Royal College of Art presented by Jony Ive

I had a wonderful time today receiving an honorary doctorate from the Royal College of Art ❤️🙏❤️

Massive congratulations to all students graduating today at TheAlbertHall and my fellow honorands Siobhán Davies and Peter Gabriel

#RCAconvocation #lifegoals @siobhandavies #petergabriel

Captain Jerry Roberts – Bletchley Park codebreaker

Here I am 9 years ago with the wonderful Captain Jerry Roberts, Bletchley Park codebreaker, at my birthday party. What an amazing man ❤️

One of the hardest things about running the campaign to save Bletchley Park is making friends with incredible people and then losing them 😭

Check out Jerry’s book Lorenz

#bletchleypark #codebreakers #testery #savingbletchley

70th anniversary Enigma reunion at Bletchley Park in 2009 #Bpark
8 years ago today was the 70th anniversary Enigma reunion at Bletchley Park.
The the wonderful Maggie Philbin and many other awesome people Christian Payne, Kate Arkless Gray, Benjamin Ellis, Hannah Nicklin, Matt Rawlinson and Steve Lawson, came up to Bletchley Park with me to interview as many veterans as possible to capture their memories of their time working on cracking the codes during WW2.
Here with Maggie is the phenomenal codebreaker Captain Jerry Roberts RIP, wonderful man and great family friend.
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We had an absolutely wonderful day with the hundreds of veterans that came along spending the whole day capturing as much as possible for posterity.
I had started a campaign to save Bletchley Park the previous year in July 2008 and met quite a few veterans, but this was the first time that I really got to meet hundreds of veterans and hear at first hand so many of their amazing stories.
Here are some photos from the day taken by Benjamin Ellis and Steve Lawson. There are many more, check out all the #bpark70 pics from the day on Flickr.
Here are a few of the interviews conducted that day in 2009.

I chatted to Hannah, giving an overview the day and speaking about the amazing discussions we had all had with the veterans.

Christian Payne interviewed many veterans on the day. Here are just some of his interviews. Enjoy 🙂

Interview by Christian with Bletchley Park veteran Margaret Warner of the WAAF:

Christian interviews Bletchley Park veteran Kathleen Saunders

Christian interviews Bletchley Park veteran Captain Jerry Roberts

Christian interviews Bletchley Park radio security intercept officer Alan Gordon Jackson

For more stories about Bletchley Park and the campaign we ran to save it check out my book Saving Bletchley Park.

US Amazon link here: Saving Bletchley Park 

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From 2003 to 2017 – Saving Bletchley Park, the Women of Station X, Stephen Fry, the Imitation Game and the Duchess of Cambridge #Bpark
I often get asked about Bletchley Park and my connection with it. Here are a few links that give an overview of my 14 year fascination and involvement.

 

Finding out about the women who worked there is how I first got interested in Bletchley Park in 2003, I got funding for an oral history project “The Women of Station X” to record the memories of the women who worked there:

 

 

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then I found out that Bletchley Park might have to close so I started a campaign to save it. The whole story is captured in my book:

 

US Amazon – Saving Bletchley Park

 

UK Amazon – Saving Bletchley Park

 

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and some of the highlights on my blog from 2008, read from the bottom up to get an overview of how my campaign started and what we did including getting Stephen Fry involved:
 
Here’s my old school 2008 blog: http://savingbletchleypark.org/

 

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I spoke about my life and the campaign last December at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, CA

 

 

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It’s been so wonderful to see the recognition of Bletchley Park growing over the years since the campaign started with books like Andrew Hodges – Alan Turing: The Enigma getting recognition and films being made like The Imitation Game starring great Hollywood actors like Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.

 

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Also who could forget the visit of the Duchess of Cambridge to Bletchley Park whose grandmother and great aunt worked at Bletchley Park.

 

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Have a look at these links and then comment below if you have any questions, or @ me on Twitter @Dr_Black, I’d love to hear from you 🙂

 

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I won the Digital Agenda Editor’s award for outstanding contribution to technology for good #tech4good #digitalimpact 

I was deeply honoured and absolutely delighted to win the special Editor’s Impact award at the Digital Agenda  Impact awards last week for my ” outstanding contribution to technology for good”. 

It was an amazing afternoon full of great catchups with friends in the tech for good space and interesting and exciting conversations with so many incredible social entrepreneurs 😍👍🎉 

Fabulous Saving Bletchley Park WCIT IT Livery business lunch 

I had a really wonderful time yesterday delivering a speech to the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists at their monthly business lunch on board HMS Wellington on the Thames 😀👍

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I was so well looked after my the Beadle, the Master, the clerk and everyone else, it was an absolutely superb lunch. 


We all retired to a local pub afterwards and the conversations about the IT industry, technology, Bletchley Park and our incredible UK tech history continued until the evening. 


I had a fabulous time and can’t wait to go to more WCIT events 😀😍👍🎉 

Wonderful Bletchley Park work by year 6 Girls at Surbiton High School 

I was invited to Surbiton High School earlier this year to speak about my book Saving Bletchley Park. The year 6 girls and teachers went on a trip to Bletchley Park a few weeks ago. Today I was invited back to see all the work they had done and hear about their trip. They had made Anderson shelters, morse code machines, cardboard suitcases and had dressed up in 1940s clothes, it was fabulous. Cross curricula activity at its best 😀👍🎉

    
    
    
    
    
     

UK/US Special Relationship – Winfield House roundtable

Enjoyed contributing to an extremely interesting round table discussion about the UK/US Special Relationship this morning at the U.S. Ambassador in London Matthew Barzun‘s residence Winfield House in Regent’s Park 😀  The conversation ranged from women to technology, from art to Bletchley Park and beyond. Looking forward to some practical next steps to take things to the next level.

Women of Silicon Roundabout conference – “If I can do it, so can you”

Sometimes I get lovely messages that just make my day. Here’s one that I received recently after I gave my “If I can do it, so can you” talk at the Women of Silicon Roundabout conference last month:

“I just wanted to drop you a quick note to say how lovely it was to listen to you talk yesterday – I found your journey and background really very inspiring. I came away thinking about all the things I’m scared of, starting my own business on the side being the main one, something that for two years I say I don’t have time for when I know I am passionate about it and just need to do it! You made me think I can, and now, I will.”

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By telling our stories we really can help inspire each other to go on and do things which we might not otherwise. Many people have inspired me to do the things that I do, I’m so delighted to be able to inspire others.