Joyce Aylard
Joyce Ethel Aylard was a codebreaker at Eastcote, an outstation of Bletchley Park, during World War II.
Aylard grew up in Canning Town and Ilford, and was evacuated from London to Ipswich and later Blaengarw during Operation Pied Piper in 1939–1940. She joined the Women's Royal Naval Service in 1943, and was assigned to Eastcote.
At Eastcote, Aylard was one of the operators of the bombe machines used in the Cryptanalysis of the Enigma. The machines were loud, and may have led to hearing loss in one of her ears. At the end of World War II in Europe, she was reassigned to Bletchley Park itself, to continue her code-breaking work on Japanese encrypted messages. After the war, she studied at the London School of Economics.
Aylard is the mother of Royal Navy officer Richard Aylard, the former Private Secretary to the Prince of Wales. She has been honoured with two medals for her war work.
