Sanquhar woman Katherine Mushet is looking forward to a dram good 100th birthday today with a glass of Scotland’s national drink.
She worked during WWII as part of the team intercepting secret enemy messages in connection with the famous Bletchley Park code breakers.
Katherine, now a resident of Queensberry Care Home, said: “It was a top secret job and we weren’t allowed to talk about it or we would be punished. We just had to tell people who asked that we were sorry and could not say anything.
“It was a really enjoyable job and we sent the messages to Bletchley Park. I speak German and French which came in very useful as you can imagine.”
Katherine was born in Sanquhar on February 4, 1922, and, the daughter of a worker at Sanquhar Forge, she studied at Glasgow University in the 1930s where she obtained an MA in French, German and Mathematics.
During WWII, she worked at Bletchley Park as part of the intelligence corps and her name appears on their Roll of Honour. After the war, she moved to Adelaide in Australia where she worked at EMI Electronics.
However, Katherine said: “I got a letter from a neighbour to say my father was ill and that my mother was worn out looking after him, so I had to go back to Scotland. I got a job as a teacher at Sanquhar Primary teaching the P.7 class and also worked at Kelloholm and Kirkconnel.”
Katherine’s niece Angela Jardine said: “She ‘s a remarkable lady.”
She also loves to sing and we often hear her singing when we are coming down the corridor.”
