Not enough of these in the world------>
Baroness Trumpington, former Bletchley Park clerk, dies aged 96
Baroness Trumpington, a wartime Bletchley Park transcriber who was part of the push to posthumously pardon Alan Turing, has died aged 96. As the daughter of a society family that had almost been ruined in the Wall Street Crash of 1929, Jean Campbell-Harris left school aged 15 "having never sat an exam but fluent in French, …
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 13:12 GMT Fruit and Nutcase
A suitable picture to remember her by here...
https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/national/17257791.11-of-baroness-trumpingtons-best-quotes/
Hopefully her family send her away with a box of fine cigars...
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 17:44 GMT David 132
Re: Don't make them like they used to.
My favourite of her quotes was referenced in her obituary in today's Telegraph.
Apparently when she was being appointed a Baroness, the title of Trumpington belonged to someone else, so she was asked whether there was an alternative Cambridgeshire location she'd accept for her title.
"You don't think I'm going to call myself Lady Six Mile Bottom, do you?" she demanded.
...And subsequently got Trumpington.
RIP.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 13:59 GMT Wellyboot
A Good Life
Imagine being 18 yr. old and suddenly getting the utterly secret job transcribing the life & death of thousands at the most critical point of the U-boat war. It puts a real perspective on what's 'important' for the rest of your life.
Firmly help opinions & ageing disgracefully, the only way to go!
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 14:49 GMT steelpillow
Re: A Good Life
My Mum got much the same job with the Admiralty, and at much the same age. Though the coded messages were ours, they still carried the same horror. And she smoked Black Russians afterwards, not cigars. She in turn taught me what was "important" for the rest of my life.
I'm sure the Baroness needs someone to talk to. This beer's for you, Mum.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 15:30 GMT Antron Argaiv
Re: A Good Life
...as did mine (though on the other side of the pond -- Nebraska Ave in DC).
I think probably the worst part for her was being kicked out the door at the end of the war, being told "thank you very much, now get out". At 25, having had all that responsibility and having accomplished so much, to be told that your services are no longer required, and you should settle down and raise children (which she did, and very well, too) is somewhat (!) of a slap in the face.
But that was how they treated the women who ran the country while the men were off fighting.
Here's to them all!
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 17:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: "thank you very much, now get out"
While they should have indeed been treated better, they could have also had it worse. They might have ended up with a shortage of limbs, sanity, or been six feet under in some corner in a foreign field; Worked to death as slave labour, gassed, drowned whilst trapped in a sinking steel coffin, massacred in reprisals, burned in a firestorm, starved, died of disease, ...
Thank f*ck that that was never me.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 14:58 GMT Daedalus
Advocatus Diaboli
Isn't this the sort of privileged life story we're supposed to look back on with, at best, mixed feelings nowadays? What exactly did she do for the Tories to get her title? She's a character out of Evelyn Waugh's canon, and not one of the nicer ones. Maybe not even a Mrs. Stitch, whose power could be used for good or evil. She sounds more like Guy Crouchback's wayward wife than some delicate English rose.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 16:37 GMT LucreLout
Re: Advocatus Diaboli
Isn't this the sort of privileged life story we're supposed to look back on with, at best, mixed feelings nowadays?
Why on earth would you think that? The war generation are worthy of your respect. No caveats. No buts.
What exactly did she do for the Tories to get her title?
Probably a damn sight more than Chakrabarti did in the peeragewash.
Baroness Trumpington did a damn sight more for this country than I suspect you or I will ever do. So if you want to make empty headed, ignorant, and fact free lefty rants, facebook is over there --->
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 21:55 GMT David 132
Re: Advocatus Diaboli
Daedalus, haven't you ever heard the guidance "do not speak ill of the dead"?
There are no such injunctions regarding the living, however, so allow me to warn that in your utterings here you're tending to come across as just another bitter, shrivelled left-wing miserablist with a chip on his shoulder a mile wide.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 00:03 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Advocatus Diaboli
Oh leave Chakrabarti alone, she's a very nice lady who's entire professional career has been helping campaign for our rights, such as post 9-11 attempts https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-terrorism,_Crime_and_Security_Act_2001 to curtail our freedoms.
I reckon our pair of Baronesses would have got on famously and had a lot more in common than you might have expected. There seems to be some really distaste, on here, towards lefty do-gooders, even the ones actually *doing good*.
People trying to keep us out of the grips of overly authoritarian government are A Okay in my book.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 16:41 GMT I ain't Spartacus
Re: Advocatus Diaboli
What she did for the Conservatives looks to be the usual mix of being a JP, local councillor and doing charity work. I admit here that I just popped into Wikipedia for a look - and it's not a well written article, but she didn't half get up to a lot. Assuing it's all true of course.
She seems to have done a bunch of Quango work, like being a member of the mental health tribunal (appointed by Labour in the 70s) - and as the piece says representing the country at the UN.
The peerage seems to have come during the time she was at the UN (1980), so I'd imagine it came because of that. But may also have been because Thatcher was planning to make her a minister later, when she came back? She also seems to have been involved in the diplomatic bits of Court - hence being made a Baroness and a privy councillor in 1980.
On Desert Island Discs she asked for the Crown Jewels as her luxury item. That way she'd have a better chance of getting rescued. Well played that woman!
I also approve of her having been a steward for Folkestone racecourse. So she clearly liked a drink, a smoke and a flutter.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 23:52 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Advocatus Diaboli
I'm sure she was a rude pain in the arse, but frankly your "English rose" stuff is just guff.
Why does she have to be "a rose" to have helped, or to be worthy of a title.
What exactly did she do for the Tories to get her title?
She served her country at a time of existential threat, She helped.
The notion of being worthy of a antiquated and inequitable honours system is quite a stretch given the typical accomplishment of the holder is simply having been born.
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Wednesday 28th November 2018 08:10 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Advocatus Diaboli
The vast majority of peers are appointed, the vast minority get it through birth...it changed so long ago it was in Blair's time as PM.
She served at Bletchley Park...if you've not been you could consider going...it's a beautiful experience...treading in just some of her foot steps is a real eye opener to part of Churchill's war strategy.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 18:32 GMT Anonymous Coward
Had a smile today, on radio someone who knew here was taking about her younger days when apparently her idea of a good time was to "pop into Paris and get ar"eholed"... there was a moment of sulence followed by "oops sorry I shouldnt have said that on radio should I?"
A fitting tribute to a plain speaking woman.
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Tuesday 27th November 2018 20:02 GMT cornetman
My memory might fail me, but I seem to remember that she was a friend to the Fulham Brass Band, an organisation that I was a member of some many years ago.
I had the honour of picking her up from the Houses of Parliament in my beat up old BMW car to attend an anniversary celebration. Felt quite the honour. :)
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Thursday 29th November 2018 15:36 GMT EssentialTremor
If you do nothing else in your computing career, take a day and visit Bletchley. The grounds and buildings are now a museum and what you will see and hear there will astonish and move you. The Baroness was one of many whose accomplishments and dedication had no precedent and have not been equaled.