Bletchley & B-Day

One of my favorite places to visit while in the UK is the National Museum of Computing, NMOC, at Bletchley Park. As I thought of teaching the Introduction to Computer Science class in the London, this location was going to serve as the center of the whole course. I wanted to use WW2 and the technology that was created during the war by the British military to help students to understand modern computer science and also the history of the UK. The National Museum of Computing is an amazing place that has actual working computers from WW2 and volunteers who will explain in detail how these machines came about and how they work. The trip this day would be the 4th time I have been out to this location.

The day before I had spent much of it planning and conducting academic advising meetings with students back on Samford campus. This was after a great class on vocation with all the DH students. Becky had one of her many morning coffees with one of the women at the DH. I am so proud of her compassion and love for the women here at the Daniel House. The women really respect her and love to sit and share with her either in groups or one on one. We then spent that night planning out and reserving a place in York for our spring break trip.

The next day was my Birthday. I was greeted by a great hand drawn and written birthday card by my amazing wife. She also gave me a “Take Heart” rock she found, and I will set it out for someone else to find. Then as my class met at 8:30 am to begin our travels to Bletchley Park, I was sung Happy Birthday and given a cake by Tom and my class. Nice way to start my birthday this way. We then headed out to get on the tube and head to Euston station. Then off to Bletchley. The day was gorgeous, and the nice spring weather continued.

On the train trip over I decided to do a little bit of teaching and with legal pad as a great white board I was able to teach about programming languages and compilers and interpreters. We arrived at Bletchley and walked from the station to the museum. We immediately walked into the room displaying the Colossus computer the brits built to break the code that the German Lorenz decoder computer created. The volunteer gave a great talk on the challenges the people at Bletchley Park had to overcome, the algorithms that Lorenz used and how Tommy Flowers and the team of people there ultimately built a series of machines to break the code. Even though I had heard this presentation before each volunteer adds so much and once again, I learned new things.

After this presentation we grabbed some lunch and then heard the presentation on the German Enigma decoding machine and the Bombe computer that Alan Turing and his team built to break the Enigma. We had talked about this particular computer in class and the students had seen it talked about in their textbook, now they not only got to see the machines, but also got to see all these decoders and computers in action with great explanations around them. We then also got to see the oldest working computer in the world, The Harwell Dekatron computer first ran at Harwell Atomic Energy Research Establishment in 1951.

We then moved over to Bletchley Park where the WW2 codebreakers actually lived and worked. Each time I come they have restored more of the building and keep expanding the information. What makes all of Bletchley so interesting is that for almost 50 years the work that had been completed here had been kept secret. It was really only in the 1990’s and early 2000’s that the details of the amazing work at Bletchley started to come forward. Now the amazing and groundbreaking work that people have done here can finally be recognized. Unfortunately, so many of the individuals who so diligently worked here never received the accolades they so rightly deserved in both shortening WW2, but also the foundations they discovered to today’s cyber security and computer technology in general.

Students had to eventually head back to London. Becky and I stayed until after 4 before we headed back. We grabbed some dinner at The Slug & Lettuce near the London Eye and then headed out and eventually found the entrance to the London County Hall. This building used to house the Greater London Council, but it was dissolved in 1986 and since then many different things have occupied this huge building on the Thames. Since 2017 a production of Agatha Christy’s “Witness for the Prosecution” has been performing in an old and spectacular court room. It was this show that Becky and I watched. It was a great production, and we really enjoyed ourselves. After the show we stumbled, exhausted, across the Thames to the Westminster tube station. The city of London lit up at night is really wonderful. Thye have really done a good job making it exciting to look at.

It was a very full and fun 63rd Birthday. It was 3 years ago that I first flew to the UK for Abigail and Mark’s wedding. Now I am blessed to be living in here for several months. Unbelievable!