My friend Sheila Willson, who has died aged 95, was a veteran of the wartime codebreaking centre at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, and in the 1950s and 60s had a career as a film editor. Then in the 70s she retrained, and for more than 30 years was a respected Jungian psychotherapist.
Sheila was born in Kingston upon Thames, west London, to Marie (nee Green), a fashion agent and model, and Harold Willson, who owned a fashion house in central London.
Educated at a Catholic girls’ convent school in Buckinghamshire, Sheila was offered a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama, in London, but turned it down because of the outbreak of the second world war. She volunteered for the Women’s Royal Naval Service and in 1944 was assigned to work at Bletchley Park. There she was a member of the Plot team, keeping track of the location of British and allied vessels that might be referred to in coded messages. She helped to prepare the daily summary of this work, entitled The Allied War at Sea, that was sent to Winston Churchill.
In 1949, at the invitation of a family friend, she set sail for Australia and New Zealand for two years, working and visiting artists including Jimmy Pike, one of Australia’s most respected painters.
From 1952 Sheila worked at the animation company Halas and Batchelor, in London, first as secretary to the director, and then as an assistant film editor. From 1957 and throughout the 60s, she worked as a film editor, at the Film Producers Guild, a film-makers’ collective that owned Merton Park Studios, and with Roland H Riley, making drama documentaries for government departments. Because of her personal views, she asked to be released from making any films about chemical and biological warfare.
Sheila became interested in the ideas of Carl Jung and in 1975 trained at the Westminster Pastoral Foundation, under the supervision of David Holt. She emerged as a Jungian psychotherapist, and practised for 35 years until her retirement in 2010. She was a fellow at the Guild of Pastoral Psychology and honorary president of the CG Jung Club. I came to know Sheila through the club’s reading group about a decade ago.
Her interests ranged widely, from art and music to mythology. Sheila was a regular attender of Wigmore Hall concerts, in particular a devotee of Schubert, and a member of Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square. She was an enthusiast for the work of the artist Thetis Blacker, whose richly coloured batik paintings, notable for their symbolic qualities, adorned the walls of her home in London.
She is survived by her cousin Tom and goddaughters, Zana and Kate.
