Here at Octopus we always encourage people to make sure
they have a healthy life / work balance and get to embrace their
hobbies and passions outside of the office.
Chris Owen, a
Senior Account Director at Octopus, has worked with Bletchley Park,
the home of the codebreakers in the Second World War, for a few
years now and has won industry awards for his work with them. He is
also a keen writer and was commissioned by Wired to write a feature
as part of the magazine's focus on Alan Turing around the legendary
mathematician's 100th birthday this week (Turing played
an integral role in the codebreaking at Bletchley Park).
Chris's piece is below - and there's another to follow later
this week…..
Bletchley Park, codebreaking and the lost art of
secrecy
Social networks, 24-hour news, consumer journalism and the
ability to share everything with everyone (and anything with
anyone), has created an insatiable desire for gossip and scandal.
Throughout the Leveson enquiry we've witnessed countless hidden
secrets unearthed and pored over by lawyers, media and the public.
In short, nothing is really secret any more. Alas, it wasn't always
thus.
During the Second World War, the manor at Bletchley Park -- once
a paragon of British architectural eccentricity (to put it kindly)
-- was home to not only the greatest collective secret in the
history of warfare, but the greatest example of secrecy being used
as an undefeatable weapon.
Bletchley Park was home to the code breakers, although "home"
belies the fact that throughout the war only one person remained a
permanent tenant. The thousands (at its peak it is estimated that
over 10,000 people worked at the Park) who travelled in and out
each day stayed nearby at billets in the various towns and
villages, or commuted in from the Oxbridge university towns which
provided many of the great minds which underpinned the
code-breaking operations.
Read more
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