Ailsa Giles Maxwell ( Macdonald; 16 December 1922 – 10 February 2020) was a British

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

code breaker and historian.

Early life and education

Ailsa Giles Macdonald was born in

Gourock Gourock ( ; ) is a town in the Inverclyde council areas of Scotland, council area and formerly a burgh of the County of Renfrew in the west of Scotland. It was a resort town, seaside resort on the East shore of the upper Firth of Clyde. Its ma ...

on 16 December 1922, to Douglas Macdonald a railway manager, and his wife Grace, a school teacher. The family moved to London when her father was transferred to

Euston Station Euston railway station ( ; or London Euston) is a major London station group, central London railway terminus and Euston tube station, connected London Underground station managed by Network Rail in the London Borough of Camden. It is the sout ...

, and Ailsa began her schooling in the city. She completed her schooling at

Dumfries Academy Dumfries Academy is one of four secondary schools in Dumfries in south west Scotland. It is a state funded secondary school for both girls and boys. The schools moto is "doctrina promovet" which translates from Latin to "learning promotes" which ...

, and then took up a place at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

in 1942 to study economics.

Bletchley Park

After completing the first year of her economics degree with distinction, Maxwell planned to join the

WRENS Wrens are a family (biology), family, Troglodytidae, of small brown passerine birds. The family includes 96 species and is divided into 19 genus, genera. All species are restricted to the New World except for the Eurasian wren that is widely di ...

, however she was approached by the Foreign Office in the summer of 1943, and invited to interview for an unspecified job. A fellow student of History at her university, Cecily Giles, was also made a similar offer. She and Maxwell accepted the offer and Maxwell was appointed to work as a Temporary Assistant at Station X, the UK's

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

code-breaking centre at

, in

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (, abbreviated ''Bucks'') is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-east, Hertfordshir ...

. She was billeted in a house with

Wolverton Wolverton ( ) is a constituent town of Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban ar ...

along with a group of other young women. After receiving two weeks training, Maxwell was appointed to Hut 6 where she worked in the Block D machine room. Maxwell was responsible for compiling menus from information obtained by other huts and inputting it to the electro-mechanical codebreaking

Bombe The bombe () was an Electromechanics, electro-mechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma machine, Enigma-machine-encrypted secret messages during World War II. The United States Navy, US Navy and United Sta ...

, as part of the effort to decipher the Germans'

Enigma code The Enigma machine is a cipher device developed and used in the early- to mid-20th century to protect commercial, diplomatic, and military communication. It was employed extensively by Nazi Germany during World War II, in all branches of the G ...

. Speaking to the Bletchley Park Oral History project, Maxwell described her work as follows.

"Our main job was, when a stop from the Bombes satisfied the way it had been set up, we then set this up on the Enigma machines to see whether it was right. We didn't know German, but it was obvious whether what came out was nonsense or made sense. I enjoyed it when we made up programmes, it was fun and something unusual to do."

On the night of 7 May 1945 Maxwell was working along with

Asa Briggs Asa Briggs, Baron Briggs (7 May 1921 – 15 March 2016) was an English historian. He was a leading specialist on the Victorian era, and the foremost historian of broadcasting in Britain. Briggs achieved international recognition during his lon ...

of the Intelligence Corps when the station received the uncoded message from Hitler's successor and President of Germany, Admiral Karl Dönitz, announcing Germany's unconditional surrender. Maxwell's service at Bletchley Park ended the following day on 8 May 1945,

VE 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; it marked the official surrender of all German military operations ...

. She was required to sign the

Official Secrets Act An Official Secrets Act (OSA) is legislation that provides for the protection of Classified information, state secrets and official information, mainly related to national security. However, in its unrevised form (based on the UK Official Secret ...

and did not speak about her experiences until some time after the work of the code-breaking operation was

declassified Declassification is the process of ceasing a protective classification, often under the principle of freedom of information. Procedures for declassification vary by country. Papers may be withheld without being classified as secret, and event ...

in 1974.

Post-war research career

Immediately after the war Maxwell returned to Scotland to finish her Economics degree at the University of Edinburgh and assist with the 1945 General Election in Scotland. She then worked for a period as a researcher at the

Department of Health for Scotland Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

. Later, Maxwell worked as a research assistant in the University of Edinburgh's Department of Economic History, where she worked on a project led by

Michael Flinn Michael Walter Flinn (22 October 1917 – 28 September 1983) was a British economic historian. Born into a middle-class family in Chorlton-on-Medlock, he was educated at William Hulme's Grammar School in Manchester, serving as an officer in the ...

that led to the publication of ''Scottish Population History from the 17th Century to the 1930s''. Following this, Maxwell worked at the

General Register Office for Scotland The General Register Office for Scotland (GROS) () was a non-ministerial directorate of the Scottish Government that administered the registration of births, deaths, marriages, divorces and adoptions in Scotland from 1854 to 2011. It was also re ...

. She also undertook a number of research projects with her husband, including the history of Scottish

silversmith A silversmith is a metalworker who crafts objects from silver. The terms ''silversmith'' and ''goldsmith'' are not exact synonyms, as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are (or were, at least) largely the same but differed in that t ...

s and goldsmiths, and together they translated the diary of George Home (1660-1705) from Berwickshire.

Personal life

While completing her degree at the University of Edinburgh, Maxwell met her husband Stuart Maxwell, who went on to become deputy keeper at the

National Museum of Scotland The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a museum of Scottish history and culture. It was formed in 2006 with the merger of the new Museum of Scotland, with collections relating to Scottish antiquities, culture and history, ...

. The couple married in 1953 and had two sons, Ian and Sandy. For much of their lives, Maxwell and her husband lived at Dick Place in The Grange area

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

. Maxwell was pre-deceased by her husband and spent the final year of her life in care in Portobello. She died on 10 February 2020, at the age of 97.

In fiction

Maxwell's war-time experiences at Bletchley Park, partially inspired the novel ''The Amber Shadows'' by Lucy Ribchester.

References