A thought provoking and well attended visit by pupils from the school.

Barbara O’Connell recalls the freedoms and responsibilities she gained as a young woman working as a volunteer FANY (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry) in World War II. Barbara recounts her time at Fawley Court in Henley where she was trained to code by writer and expert cryptographer, Leo Marks, leader of the Codes and Ciphers team which provided the crucial communications link for Special Operations Executive agents working in occupied Europe. She was later transferred to Grendon Underwood listening station in Buckinghamshire, and recalls, with some humour, the awful sleeping arrangements and the terrible food, and how she managed to find ways around these problems. Too excited to be scared, she tells of a journey by boat through U-boat patrolled waters to Algeria where she worked at the SOE's secret 'Massingham' base at Sidi Ferruch, just outside Algiers. Promoted to cadet Ensign, she coded messages sent during operations to secure the Italian armistice. Some years later, those involved were invited to Bologna, and Barbara proudly shows the ‘amazing medal’ presented to her in recognition of the part she played.