Margaret Cooper

Margaret Elizabeth Cooper (née Douglas; 25 January 1918 – 18 July 2016) was a member of the Women's Royal Naval Service during the Second World War who worked at the signal interception and deciphering centre at Bletchley Park, England.

Early life and education Cooper was born Margaret Elizabeth Douglas in Punta del Este, Uruguay, on 25 January 1918. Her father, Jack Douglas, originally from Canada, owned a beach house across the River Plate from Argentina, where he owned a beef ranch. She was educated at St Mary's School, Wantage, in England.

Career Cooper joined the Women's Royal Naval Service ("Wrens") in September 1941. She was trained at Westfield College, London, and expected to become a cook but part way through her training a request was received, said to be from Winston Churchill himself, for volunteers to do unspecified secret work. Cooper and most of her class accepted and quickly found themselves at the signals interception and decoding base of Bletchley Park in central England and not the naval base they had expected. Later in 1942, she received a letter addressed to "the blonde Wren from Argentina on the platform at Bletchley station". They had four children, Elizabeth Salton, Ian Cooper, Jane Toews and Peter Cooper.

Cooper died on 18 July 2016 at St. Peter's Hospice in Hamilton, aged 98.