Jean Valentine

Jean Millar Valentine, later Jean Millar Rooke (7 July 1924 – 17 May 2019) was an operator of the Bombe decryption device in Hut 11 at Bletchley Park in England, designed by Alan Turing and others during World War II. She was a member of the 'Wrens' (Women's Royal Naval Service, WRNS). She was later involved in the reconstruction of the Bombe at Bletchley Park Museum and gave tours there. She became a member of the WRNS during World War II and was recruited to work in Bletchley Park at the age of 18. Valentine later said that moving down to London was a new experience for her, as she had never been out of Scotland up to that point.

Career in code breaking Valentine was one of many women recruited to work at Bletchley Park during the war. During this time, she lived in Steeple Claydon in Buckinghamshire. She started work on 15 shillings (75 pence) a week. Along with her co-workers, she signed the Official Secrets Act, and remained quiet about her war work until the mid-1970s. Churchill referred to them as "the geese who laid the golden egg and never cackled".

Valentine later described how no-one would ever talk about what they were doing when outside of Bletchley Park. She worked in Hut 11, and recalled there were "five machines within the hut, ten girls and one petty officer that would be in charge of the telephone".

She was trained to decrypt Japanese codes and was posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where she spent 15 months working on Japanese meteorological reports. While there, she met Clive Rooke, a Seafire pilot in the Royal Navy, whom she married in 1945.

Valentine kept silent about her work on the Bombe until the 1970s when details began to emerge in public. Thereafter, she was an enthusiastic participant in reunions at Bletchley Park. Valentine was involved with the reconstruction of the Bombe at Bletchley Park Museum, completed in 2006. In 2006, she said: "Unless people come pouring through the doors, a vital piece of history is lost. The more we can educate them, the better."

Valentine volunteered as a tour guide at the Bletchley Park Museum, demonstrating the reconstructed Bombe. In 2010, she took part in Antiques Roadshow with Fiona Bruce.

In 2018, Valentine opened the Bletchley Park Bombe Gallery with wartime Bombe operator and Bombe guide, Ruth Bourne.