Now this is a piece of news to brighten my day! A blue plaque has been unveiled today at the GPO Research Station at Dollis Hill to the genius, Tommy Flowers! A very well deserved memorial
That's great to see. I met Tommy briefly as he was a friend of my father's, and he seemed to be a very nice man. It was around the time they were rebuilding Colossus, and he'd come round to ransack my dad's hoard of old vacuum tubes.
I didn't understand who he was at the time, but I'm always pleased when I see him get recognition.
@weebull wow! That's a great fact to drop in. Not jealous at all 😉
@virtualcolossus yeah, it's weird. My dad was too young to be involved during the war (12 in '39), but afterwards he joined Flower's group as a fresh graduate at Dollis Hill. I read the stories now and I recognise several of the names.
I also remember him telling me that the best way to keep a secret is to make sure people don't know you have a secret. I never knew his secrets, but I suspect he had been accepted into the circle. I think the team used to talk about those times between themselves because it was the only way to cope with the anguish of being silent about something you were so proud of. They remained a friend group until each of them died off.
The whole thing is very sad IMHO, but at least we are being more open about it now. I just wish Churchill hadn't made the decision he did to destroy the project.
