Commander Travis

I was looking through my mother's books recently and came across something she had written on the fly leaf of a copy of 'Most Secret War'.

'A typist, an indexer and finally a marker of de-coded naval Enigma signals, working in Block A - eventually ruled over by Commander Travis'.

Commander Travis is my Guide
I nothing lack with him beside
He for my wandering footsteps hath
laid everywhere a concrete path.

Beneath my humble windowsill
He plants the nodding daffodil,
And sends, in litte rolls, the grass
Where I my leisure hours may pass;

But any grass already there
He doth remove with tender care
Replacing it for my content
with more and more and more cement.

(placed on Block A Notice Board 1942)

Sadly my mother never talked about her experiences during the war and I only discovered her role at Bletchley Park after her death in 1991. She was recruited by SOE from a secretarial college in London 'The Triangle' after leaving school at the beginning of the war. She was a linguist and that is why I believe she went to work at Bletchley. I recently discovered a photograph of what must be the original group of women recurited to work at Bletchley park. Is there anyone out there who would recoginse any of the group and be able to tell me about my mother's time there or remember her poem? My mother moved to Kenya after the war where I was born and broought up. I have only recently returned to UK with my husband.

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