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Bletchley Park secret-code breaking Canadian Wrens

For the last word today, we're revisiting a voice we first heard on the show last December. Our producer Howard Goldenthal looked into a mother's secretive war-time work for the British in the documentary "In Search of Anne" and met Jean Tackaberry to uncover the details.
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L/Wren Anne Veronica Hereford died in 1966. Her daughter May Hyde was only 10-years-old when her mother died and wanted to learn more about her mother's secret work at Bletchley Park. Canadian Wren Jean Tackaberry helped fill in the gaps.
The Current2:25Jean Tackaberry: Secret-code breaking Canadian Wren of Bletchley Park (CLIP)

Jean Tackaberry was one of the women known as the Canadian Wrens. They worled away in England, during the second world war, at the facility known as Bletchley Park.  

You may have seen Bletchley depicted recently in the film "The Imitation Game."  It's where the Axis powers' super secret codes were broken... and Jean Tackaberry kept the secrets of Bletchley Park with her for decades.

She did agree to speak, however, with May Hyde -- whose mother, Anne Hereford, was a comrade of Jean's at Bletchley Park.

Forty-eight years after Anne Hereford's death, May Hyde wanted to learn more about her mother's war time service. The two met at the Veterans Centre of Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. That meeting was recorded as part of The Current's Howard Goldenthal's documentary, "In Search of Anne." 

Listen to the full documentary:

The Current10:25Anne V. Hereford and the secret WWII code-busting world of Bletchley Park - Dec 11, 2014
The Current producer Howard Goldenthal follows up on a listener's email only to uncover new details of a mother's secretive war-time work for the British in our documentary "In Search of Anne."

Jean Tackaberry, as she was known during the war became Jean Powell after she married. Sadly, Jean passed away on Friday, at the age of 94. 
 

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