15 Facts About Mavis Batey

Mavis Batey was one of the leading female codebreakers at Bletchley Park.

Mavis Batey later became a historian of gardening, who campaigned to save historic parks and gardens, and an author.

Mavis Batey Lilian Lever was born on 5 May 1921 in Dulwich to her seamstress mother and postal worker father.

Mavis Batey was brought up in Norbury and went to Coloma Convent Girls' School in Croydon.

Mavis Batey was studying German at University College, London at the outbreak of World War II:.

Mavis Batey Lever, was recruited to work for the Secret Intelligence Service.

Mavis Batey worked as an assistant to Dilly Knox, a classical scholar and papyrologist from King's College, Cambridge who was so eccentric that, in 1920, he forgot to invite two of his brothers to his wedding.

Mavis Batey instructed his assistants to use rodding to see whether the crib PERX worked for the first part of the message.

Mavis Batey then tried beyond this and obtained PERSONALE.

When it became clear that Mavis Batey Lever had a talent for this work, she was promoted.

Mavis Batey included a stanza dedicated to Batey and the key role she had played in the victory:.

Mavis Batey wrote a biography of Dilly Knox, Dilly: The Man Who Broke Enigmas.

Mavis Batey spent some time after 1945 in the Diplomatic Service, and then brought up three children: two daughters and a son.

Mavis Batey published a number of books on garden history, as well as some relating to Bletchley Park, and served as president of the Garden History Society, of which she became secretary in 1971.

Mavis Batey was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal in 1985, and made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1987, in both cases for her work on the conservation of gardens.