Irene Brown

Irene Jessie Brown
Born	Irene Jessie Young 16 February 1919
Died	7 June 2017 (aged 98) Edinburgh, Scotland
Known for	Bletchley Park codebreaker
Spouses	Leslie Cairns (m. 1943) Reginald Brown (m. 1948)
Children	Iain Gordon Brown

Irene Jessie "Mouse" Brown (née Young; 16 February 1919 – 7 June 2017) was an author and codebreaker who worked at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire in Hut 6^[1] during the Second World War. She was employed as a linguist and translator working in the Registration Room and the main Decoding Room.^[2]

Irene Young grew up and attended school in Edinburgh (St. Margaret's Convent School, Canaan Park School and Esdaile College).^[3] She was interested in French, English literature and Latin. At University of Edinburgh she read English Language and Literature.^[1]

She began working at Bletchley Park in the Government Code and Cypher School in 1942.^[1] Brown wrote a book (in her maiden name) about her time at Bletchley, Enigma Variations: a Memoir of Love and War.^[4] Published in 1990, it was one of the first books to describe what life was like at Bletchley. Women formed roughly 75% of the workforce at Bletchley Park.^[5] The book tells of her time in Hut 6, everyday life at “Station X”, her wartime experiences in general and the tragic death of her first husband (Leslie Cairn).^[6][7] Irene and Leslie both worked in confidential roles. He in the Special Air Service (SAS), she as a codebreaker.^[8] Neither could tell the other much about what they were doing. In 1944, he became missing in action in occupied France.^[6]

She married Reginald Sydney Brown in 1948. They returned to Edinburgh and she worked in a departmental library at Edinburgh University. Her papers and correspondence are held there.^[3] She lived much of her life in Edinburgh and died in 2017 at the age of 98.^[9]