Last Bletchley Park ‘listener’ Alison Robins dies

The last surviving ‘listener’ who intercepted and passed Nazi messages on to Allied codebreakers at Bletchley Park has died.

Alison Robins, 97, taught herself Morse code and German during the Second World War and stayed up all night eavesdropping messages from German submarines positioned around Britain’s coast.

The heroine, who served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service, told her children ‘anyone who thinks black coffee keeps you awake is wrong – the only thing that keeps you awake is the thought that if you fall asleep people will die.’

The mother-of-three, who had seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, passed away in a nursing home in Bristol.

Alison Robins served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service and taught herself Morse code and German, before helping to intercept Nazi messages 

The mother-of-three, who had seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, passed away in a nursing home in Bristol at the age of 97

The mother-of-three, who had seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren, passed away in a nursing home in Bristol at the age of 97

In her wartime career Mrs Robins dressed as a civilian and was tasked with passing on messages to Station X – later identified as Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire.

Mrs Robins rarely spoke about her years spent in isolated points around the coastline, intercepting messages from enemy fleets, but her daughter believes it was the most exciting time of her life.

Her daughter Jill Hazell, 69, said: ‘She was the last one left – very few had Morse code and German, there were only a handful of them.

‘I think she must have been quite intelligent – she left school with almost nothing.

‘She trained as a riding instructor and then when the war broke out she became a wren, and worked as a stewardess.

‘I think she was bored out of her mind serving soup at the Royal Navy College.

‘She taught herself Morse code and sat at the back of a classroom during her time off.’

After starting work as a ‘listener’, Mrs Robins found herself working with German speakers and resolved to learn.

‘She bought herself a book, Hugo’s Teach Yourself German in Three Months I think it was, and she never spoke it very well but she could listen and write it down,’ Jill added.

‘The Morse code and German were two totally different things – if you listened in German, you wrote it down and translated it.’

Mrs Robins dressed as a civilian and was tasked with passing on messages to Station X - later identified as Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire

Mrs Robins dressed as a civilian and was tasked with passing on messages to Station X – later identified as Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire

‘She used to say ‘anyone who thinks black coffee keeps you awake is wrong – the only thing that keeps you awake is the thought that if you fall asleep people will die’.

‘With that generation there was never any question of where the information was going.

‘They kept to the Official Secrets Act – even after the Bletchley Park film came out. She didn’t talk about it.’

Mrs Robins’ husband Maurice also spoke German and was sent there after the war to do translating work ahead of the Nuremberg Trials.

When he returned, the couple started their own reconciliation process by bringing the German POWs who worked at the bottom of their garden cups of tea, and inviting them for lunch.

Jill said: ‘It was very practical – my parents went to talk to them, I think that was a really important part of the post-war period for them.

‘My mother was lovely – we all adored her.’

Mrs Robins died on October 15 in Westbury Nursing Home, Bristol, where she was being cared for after suffering from dementia. 

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