Mavis Batey, Bletchley Park code breaker in World War II, dies at 92
Mavis Batey was a British student of 19, midway through her university course in German Romanticism, when she was recruited for a top-secret assignment during World War II.
“This is going to be an interesting job, Mata Hari, seducing Prussian officers,” she recalled thinking years later. “But I don’t think either my legs or my German were good enough because they sent me to the Government Code and Cipher School.”
In May 1940, Mrs. Batey — then the unmarried Mavis Lever — joined the team of code breakers at Bletchley Park, the British cryptography headquarters. Trained in the enemy’s language and endowed with a facility for words, she became a key contributor to a wartime project that remained classified for decades.
But by the time of her death on Nov. 12 at 92, Mrs. Batey was regarded in England as a national heroine. Working with Alfred Dillwyn “Dilly” Knox and other celebrated code breakers, she learned to decipher what she called the “utter gibberish” of encrypted German communications.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/mavis-batey-bletchley-park-code-breaker-in-world-war-ii-dies-at-92/2013/11/16/ef8682cc-4d49-11e3-9890-a1e0997fb0c0_story.html?hpid=z4
RIP Mavis Batey. Ya done good!
And they say women aren't good at math.
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I just finished watching "The Bletchley Circle" on Netflix about 30 minutes ago. What a marvelous feat for these women to be able show their talent for other than staying home and taking care of family.
Many years ago I met Sgt. Allen Dale June, one of the original 29 Navajo Code Talkers. What a humble man he was. Sadly, he passed away in 2010 at the age of 89.
These old soldiers, be they military or civilian, are almost all gone now. 
http://www.navajocodetalkers.org/
