Bletchley Park veteran celebrates 100th birthday

A woman who worked as a Wren as part of Bletchley Park's code breaking team in World War Two has celebrated turning 100 years old.

Hazel Halter, from Cambridge, was also a midwife in the East End of London, a nurse in Uganda and a former matron of 10 hospitals in East Anglia during her distinguished career.

She credited her long life to good chocolate, friends and her strong Christian faith.

A church friend of 30 years, Reverend Olivia Coles, said: "Hazel is an inspiration to us all, and we are all so grateful for her love, her care and wisdom."

Ms Halter spent her early years growing up with her brothers and sister in Gibraltar.

With the onset of World War Two, she moved back to the UK with her family at 16 and began shorthand typing at the Army Record's Office.

She joined the Women's Royal Naval Service, nicknamed the Wrens, and was sent to Scotland for training.

At 19 she was chosen to go to Leeds for a special job, which led her to work for more than two years at Bletchley Park in the naval section under Commander McIntyre, in the Japanese section in Hut 7.

Following the war, she trained at Royal London and became a state registered nurse at 22.

She worked in jobs in the capital before moving overseas, where she spent eight "wonderful years" in Uganda, running mother and baby clinics in remote areas.

On her return to the UK, Ms Halter was the assistant matron at the Royal London before moving in 1970 to be the principal nursing officer and matron of Addenbrooke's.

She became the matron for 10 hospitals in the area, except psychiatry and midwifery, including Huntingdon, Ely and Newmarket in Suffolk.

Speaking to the BBC in 2008, she said she did not have the physical presence of Hattie Jacques in the Carry On films, but she could still strike the fear of God into hospital staff.

"I think you had to be a bit scary," she said.

"I think it is like when you're at home, you have to be a little bit frightened of your parents.

"I think they looked up to you in those days as a figure of authority, but I think they also saw you as a sort of mother figure of the hospital."

In 1983 she retired and became a Lady Mayoress.

She became a churchwarden, an active member of Holy Trinity Cambridge, president of Saffron Walden flower club and chair of the local NSPCC charity.

Ms Coles said: "Although she never married or had children of her own, Hazel has been a surrogate mother, aunt, godmother, grandmother and friend to people of all ages throughout her long and fulfilled life."

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