Derbyshire' centenarian releases book of wartime memoirs including code breaking at Bletchley Park

Margaret Wilson has drawn on her experiences of serving with the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force at Bletchley Park for her book ‘A WAAF at War’ which she is releasing on Saturday, April 15.

She joined the WAAF in 1941, after some resistance from her mother who didn’t think it was a suitable career path for her daughter. “But my father disagreed, he was a military man and signed my papers to get in,” said Margaret.

The young Margaret initially served in Balloon Command before going on to train as a wireless operator. She recalled: “It was hard, we got bombed left right and centre. I don’t know how I’m still here. I watched a plane come down at RAF Syerston. I had to send a message in Morse code to another airfield down south, to say ‘It is with regret we have to inform you that your son was killed’. It stays with you, you can’t forget things like that.”

Later in the war Margaret trained in vital communications and went on to work as a Morse slip reader at Bletchley Park. After signing the Official Secrets Act she was sworn in by a Justice of the Peace. She says: “He told me to never ever talk to anyone about the work we were doing there and that I must take it to my end of days.” Like many veterans, Margaret has kept her vow and never spoken about the secrets.

Margaret lost her sight much later in life due to age-related macular degeneration. Fortunately, she found out about Blind Veterans UK and started receiving support from the charity in 2016.

It was through the charity that she met Simon Mahoney, a fellow blind veteran from Ashbourne, who signed up as a telephone befriender. Margaret said: “During the Covid lockdowns I was lucky enough to be connected with Simon via telephone to support me through that challenging time. I’ve loved our regular calls and the conversations have always been fun and interesting. We’ve spent many an hour putting the world to right and sharing our life stories.”

Simon, 76, said: “Having listened to and been in awe of Margaret’s amazing stories for over four years I jokingly suggested that she should write a book. She said ‘I leave that sort of thing to you.’ And in that moment a mad idea was born.”

Over the course of the next eight months, Simon, who lost all of his sight in 2018 and has written three books of his own, interviewed Margaret and typed up the book using a specially adapted PC and word-processing software supplied by the military charity that supports blind and partially-sighted veterans.

Margaret said: “It makes me happy to know that my stories can be shared with my family and friends.”

The book will be launched at an event at Shirebrook Ex-Servicemens Club on Saturday between 1pm and 3pm. Derbyshire’s Lord Lieutenant, Elizabeth Fothergill CBE, will be opening the book launch and giving a speech.

The book is available to for purchase on Amazon. Profits from the sale will go to Blind Veterans UK, the national charity for vision-impaired ex-service men and women.