Mavis Lilian Lever was born on May 5, 1921, in South London to a postal worker and a seamstress. Inspired by a vacation to Germany with her parents, she went on to study German Romanticism at University College, London. After Britain declared war on Germany in September 1939, she volunteered to be an army nurse. Instead, because of her expertise in the German language, she was referred to the intelligence services. “This is going to be an interesting job,” she recalled thinking, “Mata Hari seducing Prussian officers.” But playing the role of temptress was not what the military had in mind for her. She was assigned to one of World War II’s most secret and important operations, an ambitious Allied effort to decipher secret codes used by the Axis powers — chiefly Nazi Germany’s mind-boggling one, aptly given the name Enigma.
Posted on: Sun, 24 Nov 2013 14:55:13 +0000
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