A WOMAN from Bishops Lydeard who played a vital role in deciphering messages during the Second World War has been honoured 70 years on.

Rita Wigens, 83, joined the Wrens when she was 17 and was sent to Bletchley Park to work on an Enigma Machine.

The Bletchley Park code breakers were never officially recognised for their invaluable work in deciphering German, Italian and Japanese military codes – work that is thought to have shortened the war by more than two years and saved millions of lives.

Rita said: “I went to Scotland for three weeks training and when I came back I was sent to work on the Enigma Machine we called The Beast.

“I worked there for about a year and a half but when the war ended the job ended as there were no more codes to break.

“From then we started taking the machine apart.”

Rita and the other workers signed the Official Secrets Acts and were sworn to secrecy about their work until recently.

She added: “If we were asked what we did on the train or something we had to tell them we were writers.

“Nobody knew, not even my husband or children - we couldn’t tell anyone.”

Rita was one of 5,000 surviving codebreakers from Bletchley Park awarded a commemorative badge in recognition of their work.

“It certainly took them long enough, but it is nice to be recognised,” she said.

“I think my children were very proud of me when I told them about it.

“I sometimes wear it around the house.”