Ex-Bletchley Park worker Charlotte 'Betty' Webb awarded Legion d'Honneur

A 98-year-old woman has been awarded France's highest honour for her secret wartime work.

Aged 18, Charlotte "Betty" Webb, from Wythall, Worcestershire, went to Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire, where enemy messages were decrypted.

Mrs Webb, who has been awarded the Legion d'Honneur, later worked at the Pentagon in the US and as a school secretary in Shropshire.

She said she had "never heard of Bletchley" before starting work there.

Mrs Webb, who was involved in intercepting and deciphering messages, added: "I certainly didn't know what went on there. It was a complete surprise to me."

Her mother had taught her to speak German as a child and she said she was "taken into the mansion 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]."

Mrs Webb, who has also been appointed MBE, said she remembered it being "very friendly" at Bletchley Park.

Colleagues "were all very much in the dark bearing in mind that we'd signed the Official Secrets Act" and when she lodged with a family nearby, her lips were sealed.

"I'd just say 'well it was just a boring secretarial job'. That was my answer and I believe a lot of people adopted that attitude," she said.

She went to work at the Pentagon in 1945, after spending four years at the UK code-breaking centre, which she joined as a member of the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).

"I was one of 32,000 people in the Pentagon and working conditions were very modern and very pleasant and in the main I got on very well with the Americans," she said.

After World War Two, she said it took three months to arrange passage back to the UK and initially she returned to work at Bletchley Park.

Mrs Webb stated she believed she got the job at Ludlow Grammar School because of knowing the headmaster, who had also worked at Bletchley Park.

"He didn't ask me any awkward questions, which was a godsend because a lot of prospective employers couldn't understand why I couldn't tell them what I'd been doing."

Mrs Webb received the honour in the presence of France's Honorary Consul in the city, Mme Cécile Le Duff, and members of GCHQ at a hotel in Birmingham.

She is one of more than 6,000 British citizens to receive the Légion d'Honneur, following a decision by President François Hollande in 2014 to reward British veterans who helped liberate France.

The medal is France's highest honour, awarded to recognise service to the nation.

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