Why we need a permanent memorial for our area's secret wartime heroes
Monthly column by Alex Mayer, MP for Dunstable and Leighton Buzzard constituency
People across our constituency have been celebrating and commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day. A big thank you to everyone who organised events, beacon lightings and bell ringing. I was also honoured to join the Royal British Legion at the Linslade memorial to lay a wreath for those who served but never returned.
In Parliament's special debate on VE Day I drew attention to a group of local people that were vital on the path to VE Day. Throughout the war thousands of personnel - mainly women - worked in a place called Q Central, based in Stanbridge. Their work was top secret. So it was not celebrated in the original VE Day street parties, and neither has it been etched into the public consciousness through the years like its nearby neighbour Bletchley Park.
And yet without the work done at Q Central, much of what we achieved during the Second World War may well have been impossible.
Q Central was an unassuming site chosen as the secret communications centre for Britain as the country prepared for war. When hostilities began the headquarters of radar, RAF Group 60, also came to the town to be hidden from German attack and to be close to the telephone and radio communications.
Q Central housed the largest telephone exchange in the world. The women based there, members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, young, intelligent and diligent understood the weight of their silence. They didn’t fire guns, but their fingers flew across switchboards that relayed historic orders to warships, airfields, and field commanders around the globe. They processed thousands upon thousands of top-secret military messages every day.
Their contribution was critical to operations like the D-Day landing and Battle of Britain operations that shifted world history.
Only recently has their story begun to emerge thanks to the brilliant work of local historian Paul Brown. But now we want to go further and ensure there is a lasting memorial to the Q Central wartime heroes. I was proud to launch a campaign to install a commemorative plaque by the Leighton Buzzard War memorial outside All Saints Church alongside town mayor David Bligh, vicar David MacGeoch and LB First Chair Gennaro Borrelli.
Please support this campaign by visiting www.qcentral.co.uk to pledge to bring into the light the memories of these amazing people who served in the shadows.