Eye - 31 July 2020

From a rib-tickler to in-between spaces

A rib-tickler

There was a young Quaker from Bude
Whose language was exceedingly rude
An elder said ‘Friend,
this must come to an end’
And his reply I must now exclude…

Bill Chadkirk

The code-breaking Quaker poet

On 7 July the United States Coast Guard announced that their eleventh Legend-Class National Security Cutter will be named ‘Friedman’, in honour of Elizebeth Smith Friedman. This code-breaking poet founded the Coast Guard’s Cryptanalytic Unit in 1931, and was a Quaker.

In the official announcement the Coast Guard said: ‘Friedman was a pioneering code-breaker for the Coast Guard during the Prohibition Era and World War II… She has been dubbed “America’s first female cryptanalyst”… 

‘Between 1927 and 1930, she is estimated to have solved over 12,000 smuggling messages in hundreds of different code systems, all by hand, with just pencil and paper. During World War II, she was part of the team that broke the codes generated by the formidable Enigma machine used by the Germans. She exposed a ring of German spies in South America, effectively denying them a foothold in the Western Hemisphere.’

This extraordinary career stemmed from unconventional roots. Born into a family of Quaker farmers in 1892, she was one of two siblings out of ten that went to college, and she studied English literature, poetry and languages rather than mathematics. She first became a school teacher, and then joined a research group looking into hidden codes in Shakespeare’s plays. It was when this group were recruited by the US government in 1917 that she got her start in international secrets.

Jason Fagone, who researched Elizebeth’s life and brought many of her achievements to light in his book The Woman Who Smashed Codes, spoke with Forbes magazine in 2018. When asked about her politics he said: ‘She had a lot of views we’d consider progressive today. She admired FDR. Didn’t like Joe McCarthy. Believed in peace and international cooperation. She led a League of Women Voters chapter that met in her house. I think she was deeply influenced by growing up in a family of Quakers. She never felt very connected to her parents or most of her siblings, but she did absorb the Quaker belief in peace, and it stayed with her all her life. There’s a story about how, during the 30s, when she was getting on the witness stand at these dramatic trials and testifying against killers, the government assigned two Secret Service men to guard her… These guys stayed at the Friedmans’ house in Washington. They were like part of the family for a while. She cooked dinner for them. Yet Elizebeth refused to let the agents bring their guns into the house. This story… has been passed down over the years to her grandkids, and the explanation they’ve always heard is: “Granny was a Quaker”.’

Sliding into view

The origins of ‘The Slide’, shared by Roger Baker (17 July), were quickly unearthed by trusty Eye readers.

The ode is by Alfred Neave Brayshaw, a Friend born in 1861 who taught at Bootham School and Woodbrooke, and who became a leading light in the Young Friends movement at the start of the twentieth-century.

Catherine Kemp, of Canterbury Meeting, told Eye: ‘I have a copy of the HMV seventy-eight record made of him reciting it… in the very recognisable “deadpan” voice… The record belonged to my uncle, David Hughes, who told of a gathering of Young Friends at Woodbrooke, which Neave Brayshaw was involved in, and how while he was out one evening a competition was held to see who could best imitate him, all reciting in turn behind a screen. He came back during this, and entered the competition, coming second.’
Friends can hear this recitation online, as a record enthusiast plays a rare copy of this record at https://bit.ly/TheSlideANB.

In-between spaces

If you’re happy to see all our faces,
Bear a thought for those living in places
With no means of connection
No signal detection
So join us in in-between spaces.

Jackie Fowler

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