WW2 code cracker turns 100
Nadine Millen says the secret to a long life is having a hobby. Photo: Jo Kent.
Nadine Millen is one of few to have received a letter from the King, when she turned 100 last weekend.
The Wakefield centenarian says the secret to her longevity is not worrying about things she can’t control.
“I’ve always accepted that if I can’t change something, or make something right, I won’t worry about it. I think that’s helped an awful lot over the years. I’ve had a very fulfilled life and have no regrets.”
Born in Kent, England, in 1923, she signed up to the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAFs) in 1939, aged just 16.
“I was still only young when I went to London to join the WAAFs at the beginning of World War II. I told them I was 18. The officer who was interviewing me asked for my birth certificate, and when I went to open my bag, I gasped and told her I’d forgotten to put it in – which was a lie, of course.”
The officer then made Nadine promise to show it to her when she was called up.
“As far as I know, she’s still waiting,” Nadine chuckles.
During her six years of service, she had many postings including repairing barrage balloons, and working as a teleprinter operator, before ending up at the famed code-breaking hub, Bletchley Park.
“I was in the signals department, getting ciphers in from here, there and everywhere. All over the place.”
Historians have said the intelligence produced at Bletchley shortened the war by two to four years, and without it the outcome of the war would have been uncertain.
“The British codebreakers were able to end the war by deciphering Nazi Germany messages and cracking the Enigma code. That was the end of it really. The war ended and we all went home.”
Meeting her husband Wilf after the war, the pair had three children and raised them all in England.
“We didn’t emigrate until after our kids had moved to Australia and New Zealand as adults. We were in our fifties by then and thought it was too late for us, but I’ve gone on almost another 50 years since then.”
Wilf passed away in his eighties after being married to Nadine for 58 years, three weeks.
“We lived on Greenwood Street in Motueka for 28 years. After Wilf died, I lived there another five years on my own. When my health took a turn, I moved in with my daughter.”
She says being 100 would be better if she wasn’t losing her sight and hearing.
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“I’ve always been an avid book reader, but just two weeks ago my eyes started to fail, so now I can’t read any more. Apart from that, I’m very content.”
Keeping her brain active and maintaining an interest in something, be it reading, knitting or writing, is what she attributes to reaching her milestone birthday.
In 2020, the British government presented Nadine with a Bletchley Park Commemorative Badge to acknowledge the vital service she and others provided during the war. It takes pride of place on her bedroom dresser.