D-Day

Seventy years ago today, the D-Day landings took place.

Let us not forget the role that Bidston Observatory played in the planning of the D-Day invasions. The Observatory’s tide predicting machines — mechanical computers developed since the 1920s by Arthur Doodson and his colleagues — were used to calculate tide tables for the beaches of Normandy and other locations in Northern France.

One of Arthur Doodson's tide predicting machines.

One of Arthur Doodson’s tide predicting machines.

Nor let us forget the staff of the Observatory who operated these machines.

The ladies in this post-war photograph of the Observatory Staff by the One O’Clock gun are, proceeding clockwise from Valerie Doodson at the front left:
Valerie Doodson née Boyes, Jean Harman née MacFarlane, Dorothy Ainsworth, Eunice Murrell née Heath, Barbara Trueman-Jones, Margaret Lennon née Weston, Margaret Ireland née Wylie, Sylvia Asquith née Brooks, and Olwyn Branscombe.

Observatory staff by the one-o-clock gun

Observatory staff by the one-o-clock gun. Eunice Murrell is the lady at the back.

Eunice Murrell sadly passed away at her home last Saturday, 31 May 2014.

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