Helen McGonagle

#ThroughHerEyes Oh this is just wonderful - a new book that reveals the contribution of Kathleen Pettigrew (below), most senior MI6 secretary and inspiration for Ian Fleming's Miss Moneypenny. Dr Claire Hubbard-Hall, author of Her Secret Service: The Forgotten Women of British Intelligence, has unearthed previously classified evidence that suggests she sent messages to and from Hut 3 at Bletchley Park, where Alan Turing and his team were working to decipher the Enigma code. "She also oversaw radio communications between Bletchley Park and MI6 field agents operating overseas in the second world war, accompanying Stewart Menzies, the chief of MI6, to top-secret wartime meetings with Winston Churchill," according to this piece in the Guardian. There were lots of Irish women working at Bletchley Park too. I'll tweet about them over the coming days. Looking forward to Dr Claire's revelatory book. Fantastic work. 🙌 @spyhistory theguardian.com/uk-news/2024…

#ThroughHerEyes #otd in 1960, Nan Winton became the first woman to read the news on the BBC. She caused a media sensation - but for all the wrong reasons. The Evening Standard rejoiced at the appearance of 'Newsgirl Nan', but bemoaned the fact that she was hidden behind a desk. 'Pity,' said the article before quoting her vital stats which I won't repeat here. How they even entered the public domain is an interesting study in itself. Audience research, however, gave the BBC 'experiment' (as it was framed at the broadcaster) a firm thumbs down. Women did not have enough gravitas to read the news, viewers thought. By September, Nan was moved to a different beat. But she spoke her mind. 💪 'I believe there is certainly discrimination against women in this country,' she told the Daily Mail in 1964. 'There were times when I was doing the announcing when I wanted to shout aloud like Shylock ‘hath not woman eyes, ears, senses?’ In Italy and Spain they have women newsreaders who are beautiful and sexy too. We’re afraid of that here.' We salute you, Nan Winton.