Mary Adams (née Ritchie) (3 November 1922 – 12 July 2010) was a Scottish interceptor for

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 ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Adams was born in Montrose, Scotland to Maggie and John Ritchie. Her father was a railway foreman. Her parents moved to

Stonehaven Stonehaven ( , ) is a town in Scotland. It lies on Scotland's northeast coast and had a population of 11,602 at the 2011 Census. After the demise of the town of Kincardine, which was gradually abandoned after the destruction of its royal cast ...

where she attended Mackie Academy before going on to take a job as a clerk in solicitors' office. In 1943 she signed up for the

Auxiliary Territorial Service The Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS; often pronounced as an acronym) was the women's branch of the British Army during the Second World War. It was formed on 9 September 1938, initially as a women's voluntary service, and existed until 1 Februa ...

and was selected for the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

, where she was trained in receiving

Morse code Morse code is a method used in telecommunication to encode text characters as standardized sequences of two different signal durations, called ''dots'' and ''dashes'', or ''dits'' and ''dahs''. Morse code is named after Samuel Morse, one of ...

. She was then assigned to Bletchley Park as an interceptor of German and Italian coded signals. Adams stated that she preferred to intercept Italian signals as Italians were often excitable when transmitting which lead them to make mistakes causing them to repeat their messages, and thereby giving her a second chance to capture their messages. Having signed the Official Secrets Act, Adams did not talk to anyone, not even her husband, about her work during the war. When

MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...

officer

Frederick Winterbotham Frederick William Winterbotham (16 April 1897 – 28 January 1990) was a British Royal Air Force officer (latterly a Group Captain) who during World War II supervised the distribution of Ultra intelligence. His book ''The Ultra Secret'' was ...

published his book ''The Ultra Secret'' in 1974, she then felt able to mention her work. Adams married Bob Adams, an accountant, in 1950. They had three children, Bob, David and Lorna. After the war Adams trained as a

radiographer Radiographers, also known as radiologic technologists, diagnostic radiographers and medical radiation technologists are healthcare professionals who specialize in the imaging of human anatomy for the diagnosis and treatment of pathology. Radi ...

Manchester Royal Infirmary Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) is a large NHS teaching hospital in Chorlton-on-Medlock, Manchester, England. Founded by Charles White in 1752 as part of the voluntary hospital movement of the 18th century, it is now a major regional and nati ...

. After her children were born she worked as a volunteer at the Citizens' Advice Bureau, going on to work as trainer and tutor at its Edinburgh offices. In 2009 Adams was presented with the Bletchley Park Commemorative Badge in recognition of her role during the war. In later life she suffered from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

and was cared for at a nursing home. She died on 12 July 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adams, Mary Bletchley Park people 1922 births 2010 deaths Bletchley Park women People from Montrose, Angus