Jean Annette Watters, Briggs (15 October 1925 – 15 September 2018) was an English cryptanalyst and

Women's Royal Naval Service The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS; popularly and officially known as the Wrens) was the women's branch of the United Kingdom's Royal Navy. First formed in 1917 for the First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in 1939 at the ...

personnel who was one of around 10,000 women enlisted to decrypt the Enigma machine code at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes ( Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following ...

and never revealed details of her work.

Biography

Jean Briggs Watters was born in

Bury St Edmunds Bury St Edmunds (), commonly referred to locally as Bury, is a historic market town, market, cathedral town and civil parish in Suffolk, England.OS Explorer map 211: Bury St.Edmunds and Stowmarket Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

, England on 15 October 1925. She was the oldest of three sisters and went on to attend art school in Cambridge, before taking on a deferment to join the

. When Watters was later recruited as one of around 10,000 women into the top-classified Ultra programme to decrypt the Enigma machine code at

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

, a false story was created to say that she was a London bus driver to maintain secrecy of the project and she did not reveal any details of her work. She operated an electromechanical machine known as a "

bombe The bombe () was an electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The US Navy and US Army later produced their own machines to the same functiona ...

" to read signals transmitted by the German Armed Forces. Watters married

United States Army Air Corps The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) was the aerial warfare service component of the United States Army between 1926 and 1941. After World War I, as early aviation became an increasingly important part of modern warfare, a philosophical r ...

B-17 The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engined heavy bomber developed in the 1930s for the United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Relatively fast and high-flying for a bomber of its era, the B-17 was used primarily in the European Theater ...

pilot John Watters at Saint Mary's Church, Westley soon after

Victory in Europe Day Victory in Europe Day is the day celebrating the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Germany's unconditional surrender of its armed forces on Tuesday, 8 May 1945, marking the official end of World War II in Europe in the Easter ...

and he received permission from the

Government of the United Kingdom ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal coat of arms of t ...

for his wife to leave the Navy to begin their life together. They had six children. Although the couple moved to the United States in 1969, Watters refused to take up citizenship, resisting pleas from her husband to do so. In the country, she took on the role of a housewife, creating birthday cards for her children by hand and painted. Her paintings were exhibited and she declined all offers from others to purchase her work. Watters also volunteered as a public school librarian and a tutor, regularly opening her home during the holiday period to help disadvantaged children in their education. Furthermore, she cooked on a broad culinary range and her recipes were sent across the world. Watters was a keen gardener and played

contract bridge Contract bridge, or simply bridge, is a trick-taking card game using a standard 52-card deck. In its basic format, it is played by four players in two competing partnerships, with partners sitting opposite each other around a table. Millions o ...

and

mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...

to a high level. In 2009, her work in the Ultra programme was officially lifted and her work was recognised by

Gordon Brown James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British former politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party (UK), Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010. He previously served as Chance ...

, the

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

, with a medal for her contribution. Watters died on 15 September 2018 in

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest cit ...

. Her eldest son Robin insisted that she be buried with full British military honours at the Omaha National Cemetery on 24 September. Watters is immortalised in an interactive display in the United States Air Force hangar at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

at Duxford.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Briggs Watters, Jean 1925 births 2018 deaths Military personnel from Bury St Edmunds English expatriates in the United States British cryptographers Bletchley Park women Women's Royal Naval Service officers British women librarians Bletchley Park people Women's Royal Naval Service personnel of World War II

Biography

See also

References

External links