Top secret war work revealed

A Shropshire man who served at the Government's top secret Bletchley Park building today revealed for the first time the work that he and his family did to help safeguard the nation during World War Two.

Jack Grosvenor, 81, of Clee Hill, worked for MI6 as a boy after his father, Arthur John, took him along. He has had to keep his work a secret for 65 years because of Government rules on national security.

But today he spoke for the first time of his experiences at Bletchley Park.

He said: "The other people who I worked alongside at Bletchley Park all those years ago have now, sadly, passed away.

"I am the only survivor from that generation and I wanted to speak out on behalf of the good men who served their country at Bletchley.

"We didn't receive any pay and our job was to try and catch German spies, who were in an organisation known as Fifth Column.

"My father, Arthur John, was in charge there and took me along when I was just a lad.

"I worked on machines that could cross reference where radio signals came from. We could find out who was sending radio signals and where they were they sending them from.

"When we were picking up the radio signals, we could not tell whether they were being sent by friend or foe. They could have been being sent by double agents, for instance.

"We were looking for around 2,000 German spies.

"You'd be amazed at how many we managed to track down."

Mr Grosvenor, who for many years has served the people of south Shropshire on a committee that represents local councils, added: "The work that we did at Bletchley Park was hugely important for national security.

"By finding out who the spies were, we helped to save the lives of other people.

"Let's put it this way," he said, "if it had not have been for our organisation, then World War Two would have gone on for a lot longer."

By Andy Richardson nextpage

Jack Grosvenor with the Double Decca 46 machine that he used as a spy nextpage

Jack when he was a cadet and working as a spy