Patricia Davies (codebreaker) facts for kids

Patricia Davies (born June 19, 1923) is an English former codebreaker. She worked for the Women’s Royal Naval Service (WRNS) during World War II. She and her younger sister Jean Argles were often called "The Codebreaking Sisters." As a teenager, Davies listened to German radio messages and secret codes. She wrote down and decoded these messages, then sent them to Bletchley Park.

After the war, Davies became a television producer, journalist, and author. She also helped organize the Chiswick Women’s Institute and supported the Sea Cadets. She and her sister were among the last people who had to keep their war work secret under the Official Secrets Act. Later in life, they found out each other's secret war jobs. In their nineties, they often appeared on radio and TV to share their wartime stories. Their book, Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War, became very popular.

Patricia's Early Life

Patricia Owtram was born to Dorothy and Carey Owtram. She had two siblings, Jean and Robert. Her father owned a cotton mill in Bolton, Lancashire. The family lived in a large house in the countryside. Patricia was homeschooled, then went to boarding school for a few years. She left school at 17.

In the 1930s, the Owtram family hired Lilly Getzel, a Jewish refugee from Austria, as a cook. Lilly had escaped the Nazi dictatorship. Patricia enjoyed spending evenings with Lilly. Lilly didn't speak much English, so Patricia learned enough German to talk with her. This skill later helped her join the WRNS. In 1939, Patricia got her school certificate.

When the war started, Patricia's mother, Dorothy, became an Air Raid Precautions warden. Her father, Carey, joined his regiment in the Far East in 1941. After the fall of Singapore in 1942, he was held in Japanese POW camps until the war ended.

Wartime Service

In 1942, at age 18, Patricia Owtram joined the WRNS. A German language test showed she spoke German well. She then signed the Official Secrets Act. After two weeks of basic training and a special course, she became a Petty Officer. She started working at British navy signal collection sites, called Y stations.

These Y stations were where secret German military messages were picked up. Patricia would write down these messages. If they were in a code other than Morse, she sent them to Bletchley Park. Her first job was in Yorkshire. She later moved to Lyme Regis in 1943 as Chief Petty Officer. Then she went to Dover, where she turned 21 just after D-Day.

At Y stations, WRNS members worked in pairs, around the clock. They wrote down German military messages between ships. These messages could be from the North Sea, the Baltic, or the Dover Straits. They were often between ships and their bases, or between commanders and groups of ships.

Later, Patricia worked for the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force in London. This was under General Eisenhower. Her job was to check German official documents for possible war criminals. She was offered a job as a translator at the Nuremberg trials. But her mother asked her to come home to be with her father, who had returned from being a POW.

After the War

After the war, Davies worked as an assistant archivist at the British embassy in Oslo, Norway. She earned degrees from St Andrews University and Somerville College, Oxford. She also had a study fellowship at Harvard.

For a time, she was a journalist in Manchester. She also became a television producer for the new Granada Television. She helped produce shows like Florizel Street, now known as Coronation Street. She also helped create other famous programs such as University Challenge, The Sky at Night (where she worked with Patrick Moore), and Ask the Family. She retired in 1983.

In 2017, Patricia and her sister Jean published their father's wartime diaries. The book was called One thousand days on the River Kwai: The Secret Diary of a British Camp Commandant. This led to them giving talks at book festivals and appearing on radio and TV.

In 2020, Pat Davies and Jean Argles published their own book. It was called Codebreaking Sisters: Our Secret War. It told their wartime experiences.

Awards and Recognition

Davies's war service was recognized with the Victory Medal.

In 2009, the Labour government gave a Bletchley Badge to women who worked at Bletchley Park.

Davies's name is on a brick at Bletchley Park. This brick honors those who worked there.

In June 2019, Davies received the Légion d'honneur, Military. This is the highest award in France.

In 2019, she was also given the freedom of the Borough of Chiswick, where she lives.

In 2024, she was made an Honorary Fellow of her old college, Somerville College, Oxford.

Personal Life

During the war, Patricia and her sister Jean wrote letters to each other. Both had signed the Official Secrets Act. They had both done top-secret work. It wasn't until the 1960s and 1970s that they talked about their war work. This was after information about Bletchley Park became public. They then found out how similar their war experiences were. Their parents never knew about the secret work their daughters had done.

Patricia Owtram married Ray Davies, a BBC journalist.

In 2023, Davies was still giving talks to groups like the University of the Third Age (U3A). She once wrote, "It usually raises a laugh when I tell them that I may be the only old lady in Chiswick who knows how to use a Sten gun."

Legacy

Details of Davies's life and work are in several books. These include Army Girls (2021) by Tessa Dunlop. They are also in The Bletchley Girls (2015) and Elizabeth and Philip (2022) by the same author.

A portrait of the two sisters holding a telegram from their father was painted by Dan Llywelyn Hall.

There are seven films about Pat Davies in the Veterans Video Archive.

On Armistice Day 2022, at age 99, Davies joined Andrew Pierce and Tessa Dunlop for an interview. She spoke about her wartime experiences.