Irene Young (1919-2017)

Irene Young was a codebreaker at Bletchely Park during the Second World War, and graduate of the University of Edinburgh. The Irene Young Training Room in Argyle House was named in honour of her achievements.

Irene Young was born and educated in Edinburgh and, in 1937, enrolled at the University of Edinburgh to study English Language and Literature.  

Young graduated in 1942 with an MA (Hons) and shortly after was recruited by the Foreign Office. She served as a codebreaker at the Government Code and Cypher School in Bletchley Park, working to decrypt German messages during the Second World War. 

Women formed around 75% of the workforce at Bletchley Park, receiving and deciphering messages encrypted by various German machines, but most notably the Enigma machine. Young details her experiences during the war in her book "Enigma Variations: a Memoir of Love and War". She also tells of her marriage to Leslie Cairns, who worked in the Special Air Service (SAS). Both Young and Cairns were in confidential roles, and so were not able to talk much about their work. In 1944, Leslie became missing in action in France.

After the war, Young transferred from the Foreign Office to a department of the Home Civil Service and went to live in Durban, South Africa. She worked in book-selling and lectured for a tutorial college, and also met her second husband, Reginald Brown.   

Not wishing to live under the apartheid regime in South Africa, they both moved to Scotland, where Young tutored pupils in Latin and English. She went on to work in a departmental library at the University of Edinburgh for ten years, and kept writing prose and poetry throughout the rest of her life. 

The training room EW.10 in Argyle House was named after Young to commemorate her achievements.  

For more information, visit:  Irene Brown Wikipedia article