Team lines up wearing ‘Codebreaker’ away shirt in Bletchley Park.
Milton Keynes Dons players visited historic Bletchley Park yesterday, to re-create the squad photo of the wartime centre’s 1941 football team. They wore the team’s Codebreaker-inspired away shirt for the picture, which comes after Remembrance Sunday and ahead of the Dons' Armed Forces Day tomorrow.
The team are extremely proud to represent Milton Keynes alongside Bletchley Park, which is only two miles from Stadium MK. MK Dons re-created the wartime photograph to bring Bletchley Park’s hidden football history to light.
The Dons visited the site to replicate the rarely seen image of wartime footballers who once played at Britain’s top-secret codebreaking hub.
“It’s incredible to stand where people once worked in total secrecy on codebreaking that had a major impact on World War Two, and to think they also made time for football,” said Simon Crampton, Football Operations Director, MK Dons FC. “It’s a privilege to commemorate that part of our shared story.”
The original image from 1941 shows Codebreakers at Bletchley Park, including celebrated cryptanalyst Col. John Tiltman, swapping cyphers for football boots, revealing a rarely seen side to life at Britain’s top-secret intelligence centre.
It follows the launch of MK Dons’ 25/26 away kit, which references the circular keys of the Enigma machine, a typewriter-like device used by Germany to encode military messages. The re-created photo shines a light on the important role sport played for workers at Bletchley Park.
“Although we don’t know the team name they played under, from the photograph, we can see the players were all army personnel and were likely based in Hut 5, which sadly no longer exists on site,” said Dr David Kenyon, Research Historian, Bletchley Parks Trust.
“They might have played internal teams or perhaps against other military units and institutions. There were many sports and activities that took place in and around Bletchley Park when it was operational during the war.”
More information on visiting Bletchley Park here: www.bletchleypark.org.uk.
