Tamworth Herald deputy editor Phil Shanahan has received the Freedom of Bletchley Park in recognition of the paper's work to commemorate the lives of three sailors who retrieved codebooks to help break the Germans' Enigma code in the Second World War.

The award is generally only given to the people who have worked at the establishment.

Local man Colin Grazier died in the attempt, but was successful in his mission, which resulted in shortening the war by several months.

Bletchley Park is Winston Churchill's secret wartime establishment, where the Enigma code was broken by mathematician Alan Turing and his team.

This enabled the British to read the German signals to their U-boats out in the Atlantic. By being able to read their signals, the British were able to re-route their convoy ships, so that they weren't sunk

Bletchley is now a museum, and its director, Christine Large, travelled to Tamworth to present Phil with the freedom award.

Christine also took the opportunity to pick up a collection of material which Phil and his paper gathered about Colin Grazier, and his colleagues Tony Fasson and Tommy Brown - including many personal artefacts such as Colin's Bible - as well as framed cuttings from the Herald about the campaign to honour Colin. It is hoped the material will form the basis of a future exhibiton at Bletchley Park.

The trio of servicemen boarded a sinking German submarine to retrieve the code books which Turing and his team used to break the German codes.

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