Trailblazer Lady Ellen Elizabeth Reed, part of WW2 codebreaking unit, dies in Paihia aged 104

A woman who was an important part of the Allies’ codebreaking unit has died peacefully in her Bay of Islands home, aged 104, after living a “marvellous life”. Lady Ellen Elizabeth Reed, née Langstaff​, worked from 1939 to 1945 in an intelligence division at Bletchley Park, the home of British codebreaking. Bletchley Park is where the Germans’ Enigma code was broken by a team led by mathematician Alan Turing, who was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the 2015 film The Imitation Game.

Toward the end of WWII, some 10,000 people worked at Bletchley Park, but when Reed first started in 1939, she was one of just 400.

Known as Elizabeth, Reed was born in Canada and raised in the UK, where she gained a first-class honours degree from Cambridge University in French and German. She was handpicked for the Bletchley Park role, despite not being awarded her degree until 2011​ because she was a woman.

According to a 2017 Bletchley Park Oral History interview, a 23-year-old Reed was excited to be chosen for the work, which initially involved typing messages into code. “There was no interview for Bletchley Park and on the train there I felt very excited and wondered if I was going to be parachuted into France,” she said. As the war went on, she was moved to Hut 3, which translated decrypted German messages into plain language.

Although women did a lot of typing while the men did most of the translating, Reed was part of a group of women chosen by group Captain Eric Jones to do “exacting work” previously performed entirely by “well-educated men”, according to the interview. Reed’s success in the role saw her promoted to Jones’ personal assistant and personnel officer, overseeing 600 workers.

She was also heavily involved with the Bletchley Park Recreational Club Drama Group, both as secretary and as an actress, with several plays or reviews put on each year. Reed took her oath of secrecy very seriously and was horrified when group Captain Fred Winterbotham​ shared the story about Bletchley Park in a 1975 book. She also admitted the secrecy of the war meant she didn’t know about Alan Turing until the book was released, despite being close friends with one of his close colleagues, Shaun Wylie.

Reed’s eldest daughter Eila Searles said Reed didn’t talk much about her work at Bletchley Park, despite being one of the longest-serving workers there. She was a “wonderful mother” with a great sense of humour, who continued her sense of adventure, Searles said. In September 1945 she married Kiwi Nigel Reed, whom she met at Cambridge and kept in touch with during the war, and they moved to Nigeria where he worked as a magistrate. The couple had three children who were educated at UK boarding schools, with Reed often travelling to the UK for their school holidays. When Nigeria became independent in 1960, the couple decided to stay on, with Nigel Reed working his way up to chief justice of the northern states, Searles said. “They both loved the Nigerian countryside. We used to go on long walks and mum loved the flowers and the birds.”

He retired in 1975, and the couple avoided winters by dividing their time between the UK and New Zealand, where they built a house in Paihia. They moved to Paihia permanently in 1995, but when Nigel Reed died in 1997, Reed was determined to stay in her new-found home. She was a devoted member of the Anglican Church and spent a lot of time caring for the yard of St Paul’s in Paihia, Searles said.

She was also a patron of the Henry and William Williams Museum​ and was involved with Waitangi Treaty Grounds, attending Waitangi Day services every year. Reed also enjoyed attending plays – Operatunity concerts were her favourite – and travelled a lot to Canada and the UK to visit family well into her 90s.

In a 2015 article in The Bay Chronicle, Reed said she had a “marvellous life”. Even turning 100 did not slow her down. At age 102 she went parasailing, for the second time, with her youngest daughter Caroline Reed. At age 103 she sat beside Prince Charles and wife Camilla when they visited Waitangi in 2019. Searles said Reed lived in her own home until her death on August 30 and, although she had live-in carers, she found the isolation of the Covid-19 lockdown very tough. In a June letter to her grandson in Sweden, Reed said New Zealand was taking the pandemic “very seriously” but was getting on top of the disease. She signed off the letter “from ancient Granny Reed”.

Reed is survived by her two daughters, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Oral history interview extract supplied courtesy of Bletchley Park Trust. Thanks to STUFF for the article.