Irene Dixon (1 June 1924 – 1 January 2021),

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 ...

codebreaker was born in

East London East London is the part of London, England, east of the ancient City of London and north of the River Thames as it begins to widen. East London developed as London Docklands, London's docklands and the primary industrial centre. The expansion of ...

and in 1943 was one of the first women sent to the top secret unit decoding signals from

Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

's high command, during

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 ...

, and maintaining secrecy about their work for decades after.

Biography

Irene Dixon was born Irene Sarah Griffiths, in

Whitechapel Whitechapel () is an area in London, England, and is located in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is in east London and part of the East End of London, East End. It is the location of Tower Hamlets Town Hall and therefore the borough tow ...

, London to father James Griffiths, employed at the

Beckton Gas Works Beckton Gasworks was a major London gasworks built to manufacture coal gas and other products including coke from coal. It has been variously described as 'the largest such plant in the world' Winchester C (Ed), ''Handling 2,000,000 tons of coa ...

and mother Sarah Griffiths, née Flowerday who was a housewife and secretary of the women's section of the local branch of the Labour Party. The family moved to

East Ham East Ham is a district of the London Borough of Newham, England, 8 miles (12.8 km) east of Charing Cross. Within the boundaries of the Historic counties of England, historic county of Essex, East Ham is identified in the London Plan as a ...

, and she was educated at the Sarah Bonnell

Grammar School A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a Latin school, school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented Se ...

, Stratford. Her first job after school was in

market research Market research is an organized effort to gather information about target markets and customers. It involves understanding who they are and what they need. It is an important component of business strategy and a major factor in maintaining com ...

Unilever Unilever PLC () is a British multinational consumer packaged goods company headquartered in London, England. It was founded on 2 September 1929 following the merger of Dutch margarine producer Margarine Unie with British soap maker Lever B ...

. When war broke she was expected to go to

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

to work in a munitions factory, but contracted

chickenpox Chickenpox, also known as varicella ( ), is a highly contagious disease caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV), a member of the herpesvirus family. The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which ...

, and recovered but was assessed for alternative work and joined the (Wrens)

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 World War I, First World War, it was disbanded in 1919, then revived in ...

. Due to

psychometric testing Psychometrics is a field of study within psychology concerned with the theory and technique of measurement. Psychometrics generally covers specialized fields within psychology and education devoted to testing, measurement, assessment, and rela ...

, Dixon was identified as suitable to join (what became almost 10,000 women) in the secret code-breaking service at Bletchley Park, which was also known as HMS Pembroke, in reality the stately home,

Woburn Abbey Woburn Abbey (), occupying the east of the village of Woburn, Bedfordshire, England, is a country house, the family seat of the Duke of Bedford. Although it is still a family home to the current duke, it is open on specified days to visitors, ...

. She was known there as Rene Griffiths. After the war she returned to work for Unilever, was promoted to manager. In 1951, she married Sidney Harold Dixon, who was a

quantity surveyor In the construction industry, a quantity surveyor (QS) is a professional with expert knowledge of construction costs and contracting. Qualified professional quantity surveyors can be known as Chartered Surveyors (Members and Fellows of RICS) i ...

. They lived in

Barking Barking may refer to: Places * Barking, London, a town in East London, England ** London Borough of Barking, 1965–1980 ** Municipal Borough of Barking, 1931–1965 ** Barking (UK Parliament constituency) ** Barking (electoral division), Greater ...

and were actively involved in the local church, and had two children Gillian and Graham; Irene Dixon was remembered for her 'energy, personality and erhumour charmed everyone.'

Bletchley Park experience

Dixon was 'Moua' or mother to nine Wrens in her shared 'cabin' and helped them to bond together. She worked in the Newmanry section on the

Lorenz Lorenz is an originally German name derived from the Roman surname Laurentius, which means "from Laurentum". Given name People with the given name Lorenz include: * Prince Lorenz of Belgium (born 1955), member of the Belgian royal family by h ...

encrypted codes from Hitler's high command, which were decoded with the help of the Colossus MkI computer, created by fellow Eastender,

Tommy Flowers Thomas Harold Flowers Order of the British Empire, MBE (22 December 1905 – 28 October 1998) was an English engineer with the British General Post Office. During World War II, Flowers designed and built Colossus computer, Colossus, the world's ...

. Her particular workteam was directed by

Max Newman Maxwell Herman Alexander Newman, FRS (7 February 1897 – 22 February 1984), generally known as Max Newman, was a British mathematician and codebreaker. His work in World War II led to the construction of Colossus, the world's first operatio ...

, and she worked with Jack Good,

Donald Michie Donald Michie (; 11 November 1923 – 7 July 2007) was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve " Tunny ...

and

Shaun Wylie Shaun Wylie (17 January 1913 – 2 October 2009 Her name whilst serving shortened to Rene. Like all the women involved, Dixon kept silent about her role and the important work they did. She attended the 70th anniversary of the Colossus, at the

National Museum of Computing The National Museum of Computing is a UK-based museum that is dedicated to collecting and restoring History of computing hardware, historic computer systems, and is home to the world's largest collection of working historic computers. The muse ...

, where she met up with her fellow

codebreakers Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic secu ...

, and re-lived their secret and shared experiences. She is named on the Bletchley Park Role of Honour.

Death

Dixon cared for her husband, Sid, until his death in 2020, and herself died less than a year later.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dixon, Irene 1924 births 2021 deaths Bletchley Park women People from Whitechapel Signals intelligence of World War II Bletchley Park people Women's Royal Naval Service personnel of World War II