Bletchley Park World War Two veteran dies just months before 100th birthday
One of the last surviving veterans to have served at Bletchley Park - the home of Britain’s codebreakers during World War Two - has died.
Elizabeth Johnston passed away in her sleep on 4 November, just three months before her 100th birthday.
The 99-year-old was living at Newlands Care Home in Stow-on-the-Wold at the time of her death.
The veteran spent three years working at Bletchley Park after being recruited out of university in 1942.
She never spoke about her time at the base, which was home to Britain’s top codebreakers during the war, until she gave a talk at her local church in 2014.
She said she was posted initially in Hut 8, where intelligence was distributed, and then moved to Block F, the Air Section.
She was also said to have often seen Alan Turing - who famously cracked Germany’s ‘Enigma’ code - riding around the base on his bicycle.
Her daughter-in-law Rachel Hirst said: "Her education was characterised by frequent changes of school as her father was posted to different regions around the country. Perhaps this all contributed to her remarkable resilience."
After the war, Elizabeth worked in finance before marrying Kerr Johnson, a senior executive at BP.
They had two sons - Alistair and Leslie - who both live in Gloucestershire.
Their mother moved to Newlands of Stow in 2017, where she is said to have remained happily for three-and-a-half years until her death.
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