Bletchley Park - Joan Clarke Mystery Cache
Hidden : 3/27/2014
Difficulty:
2.5 out of 5
Terrain:
1.5 out of 5

Size: Size: other (other)

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Geocache Description:

Short Description

The posted coordinates are merely located at another Park; you will not find the cache here. However, it is within walking distance. The bison-sized cache is on public property. Please do not poke around in the home-owner's garden or rockery.

Update: WSGA Cache of the Month
Co-Winner for September 2014!

Long Description

In the first of what I hope to be a series about the Women of Bletchley Park, let me introduce you to Joan Clarke who became one of the top code-breakers of World War II.

Born in London in 1921, she graduated from Cambridge in 1939 with a double first in Mathematics. Her Geometry supervisor, and Bletchley Park codebreaker Gordon Welchman, recruited her to the Government Code & Cipher School in June 1940. After a period of clerical work, Clarke’s abilities soon led her to becoming one of the few women codebreakers at Bletchley Park. She was well-respected by her male peers and became Deputy Head of Hut 8 in early 1944. This was indeed rare, for there are only one or two occasions were women held leadership roles at Bletchley Park. Even Alan Turing proposed marriage to (and was accepted by) her, although he eventually changed his mind.[1]

Codes in letters sent home by POWs often slipped past censors and even eluded code breakers for decades after the war. [2]. From June 1941 clothes were also rationed and this meant that people had to make the clothes they already had last longer. The government started a Make Do and Mend campaign to encourage people to recycle and reuse old clothes and other fabrics and resources.[3] Looking like simple advertisements and knitting patterns, Clarke slipped messages into wartime pamphlets designed to encourage thriftiness [4]. One of our agents happened to spy this knitting pattern in last week's Daily Mirror.



References

[1] Joan Clarke Biography
[2] Daily Mail
[3] Make Do and Mend
[4] I totally made that up for the story line of the cache.

Additional Hints (No hints available.)



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