In this engaging interview, Geoffrey Pidgeon explains how his father’s role in stores at Bletchley Park, combined with his teenage pastime of model building, led to a job offer with the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). After securing his parents' permission to leave school, Geoffrey accepted the offer. Initially joining the Communication Section, later known as Section VIII, he began working in the workshops at Whaddon Hall. At just 14, he was the youngest member of the team—and potentially the youngest in the entire SIS. This marks the beginning of an extraordinary wartime experience. Geoffrey eventually went on to work for the newly created Mobile Construction Team, installing wireless equipment in vehicles and aircraft to assist with the interception of enemy communications. His professional experiences, alongside his personal life in Stony Stratford, placed him in a unique position to witness and participate in the highly confidential world of wartime intelligence gathering. This enables him to provide a deeply insightful account of how wireless communication and its rapid development played a crucial role in the success of Allied operations, as well as the integral nature of the ‘Y’ Service and the work at Bletchley Park.

Harry joined the Home Guard at 15 and learned how to use a rifle as well as searching for bombing victims in east London. In 1942, aged 16, Harry lied about his age and joined the army later transferring to the Royal Armoured Corps where he trained as a radio operator/driver, but he did not enjoy life in tanks and soon volunteered to join another army unit where they wanted radio skills. He went on to be trained in signals, the use of a variety of weapons and explosives, some language skills and parachuting. He was eventually told this was Operation Jedburgh and he was teamed up with a British Officerr and a young Frenchman. In July 1944 his team was parachuted into western France, where they eventually teamed up with the resistance group, the Maquis. His team managed to get into the town of La Rochelle, home of a German Submarine base where they were able to monitor the movements and positioning of the German defenders. With the Maquis, Harry later derailed a troop train and blew up a water tower. Harry left France in November 1944 and returned to England, when he volunteered to go on another Jedburgh mission to the Far East… 

Ishbel had experience with the University Officers Training Corps (OTC) and the Territorial Army (TA) before she joined the WRAC in 1985. She had trained as a pharmacist at university and it was only after graduating she considered joining the army. She recalls Crusade Eight as the first major operation she worked on alongside the local infantry unit. Ishbel describes how in this role, aside from escorting VIPS, most of the women would take on administrative work. She was then posted to C Company in Grangemouth as a Platoon Commander and comments on the changing atmosphere surrounding women's treatment in the early 1980s. Ishbel also describes how in the OTC and the TA women were afforded more opportunities, such as weapons and armed combat training, whereas the WRAC were only just introducing weapons training. From this point Ishbel underwent a series of role changes within the army; she traveled to Sandhurst, Catterick, Cyprus, Northern Ireland, and London where she completed her Masters in Administration. At Porton Down, she revisited her pharmacist experience and worked with scientists to develop pharmaceutical and technological military defences. Ishbel went on to become an Adjutant General in Bosnia, the Balkans, then a Lieutenant Colonel in Cyprus and a medic in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Reflecting on the WRAC, Ishbel feels that it gave her the grounding to begin her wider military career. An inspiring interview, we thank Ishbel for her incredible stories and for being a trailblazing woman.