Rena Stewart
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Rena Stewart | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 17 February 1923 |
| Died | 11 November 2023 (aged 100) |
| Known for | World War II codebreaker at Bletchley Park, translated Adolf Hitler’s will. First woman Senior Duty Editor at the BBC World Service. |
Rena Stewart (17 February 1923 - 11 November 2023) was a World War II codebreaker at Bletchley Park who later translated Adolf Hitler's will. She became a journalist, and the first woman Senior Duty Editor at the BBC World Service.
Rena Robertson Stewart was born on 17 February 1923 in Lundin Links in Fife to Andrewina (née Williamson) and Thomas Stewart. Her father worked for a bank and she had a sister, Isobel. In 1940, she went to the University of St Andrews, studying French and German, graduating in 1943.[1]
Second World War
Stewart volunteered to join the Auxiliary Territorial Service during the Second World War. In 1944 her linguistic abilities, particularly in German, led to her posting to Bletchley Park as part of the code breaking staff.[2] She worked in what was known as Bletchley's German book room, where she deciphered German army and air force messages that were collated in book form to provide reference documents for long-term intelligence analysis.[3][4]
Stewart collaborated with two colleagues, Elma Morley and Margery Forbes to figure out what the missing content was in partially intercepted messages. Sometimes these involved communications between the Nazi high command.[1][3]
Stewart was deployed to the Bad Nenndorf interrogation centre, part of the Combined Services Detailed Interrogation Centre in Germany following the end of the war, rising to the rank of sergeant. Based in Bad Nenndorf she was part of the teams interrogating German intelligence officers imprisoned after the fall of the Reich. Her language skills were pressed into service translating prisoner interrogations from German into English. The most important document Stewart worked on was translating Hitler's will with her friend and colleague Margery Forbes, also an alumna of St Andrews.[3] The original document was typed by Traudl Junge in the Führerbunker the day before Hitler's suicide.[5] Stewart and Forbes were encouraged by Major Bill Oughton to take their time to ensure the translation as “absolutely perfect.” They deliberated over the phrase “kleinen bürgerlichen” life which Hitler had stipulated that Martin Bormann, his personal secretary and named executor of the will should be allowed to lead.[6]
They eventually decided the correct phrase was ‘petit bourgeois’ life and Stewart was pleased to discover in 1947 that Hugh Trevor-Roper used her translation in his seminal book, The Last Days of Hitler.[1]