Code war helped by baking powder

Great British crossword and chess minds spent years brainstorming in Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, in a bid to work out the meaning of the Germans' scrambled communications. When the code was finally cracked, the war was cut short by a couple of years and thousands of British lives were saved.

Although most of the serious decoding went on at Bletchley Park, a warship supported by a County Durham factory played a crucial, early role.

Lingfords, the baking powder manufacturer in Bishop Auckland, adopted HMS Tartar, a Tribal class destroyer, early in the war. Tartar was chosen because of the vital role tartar plays in the creation of baking powder.

"We sent her regular supplies of books, papers, food-stuffs, comforts, games and gramophone records," records Lingfords' history, written in 1948.

In the early days of the war, Tartar was a busy ship, patrolling the North Sea. By the end of May 1940, she had become the first British vessel to clock up 200 days at sea and the first to travel 10,000 nautical miles since the outbreak of war.

In the same month, the British made their first breakthrough against the Enigma, capturing codebooks from a German ship in the North Sea.

Naturally enough, the Germans immediately changed the code - but the British codebreakers now at least knew how the Germans' minds, and the Enigma machines, were working. If only they could get their hands on the new codebooks they might stand a chance of seeing the pattern and working out the formula that produced the codes...

On June 25, 1941, HMS Tartar was one of four warships despatched to north Iceland to capture the new codebooks. U-boats had the books but they were almost impossible to catch because of their armoury and the fact that they moved underwater.

But British intelligence had worked out that some of the Dutch trawlers dotted about the North Sea were not really fishing, but were disguised German weather ships, sending back meteorological information. Although the meteorological information itself was not encoded, the trawlers must have the codebooks so that they could understand the orders that were sent to them.

So the Tartar set out in search of the Lauenberg, a weatherboat disguised as a trawler. The crew did not know the importance of the Lauenberg, but guessed something was afoot by their strange orders: don't shoot to hit the ship, shoot to miss - but shoot close enough to force the crew to abandon ship sharply.

At 7pm on June 29, the Lauenberg was spotted behind an iceberg. The Tartar's gunners opened fire and missed, as instructed, but immediately the Lauenberg's crew could be seen rowing for safety in their lifeboats.

Tartar steamed alongside the weathership and a boarding party jumped aboard. They bagged up all the papers they could lay their hands on, picked up some souvenirs, including the Lauenberg's bell, and returned to the Tartar. Then the gunners opened fire for real, and the Lauenberg was despatched to the bottom of the sea.

The naval intelligence officer aboard the Tartar sifted through the mass of papers. Among the usual charts he found three loose pieces headed Steckerverbindungen (plug connections) and Innere Einstellung (inner settings). From these, British intelligence was able to work out the wheel order on the Enigma machines and how the inner rings fitted on to the wheels. From there, it was possible to see the formula behind the code and for the rest of 1941 the British were able to read the Germans' most secret communications.

Even when the Germans caught on and changed the code, the British always had an inkling of what was going on because they knew the formula that the code was based upon.

There were plenty of other adventures for the crew of HMS Tartar during the remainder of the war. In 1942, in the Mediterranean, she came under attack from the air. Her sister ship, HMS Foresight, was badly damaged. After rescuing the crew, Tartar torpedoed Foresight so she sank.

In January 1944, Tartar again came under attack. This time she was in the English Channel and this time her aggressors were German warships. She was hit three times. Her galley and bridge caught fire. Four of her crew were killed, 12, including her commander, were injured.

She managed to limp home and was refitted. She spent the rest of the war in the Indian Ocean.

When she returned, the scrapyard beckoned. In December 1945, four of Lingford's crew went down to bid her farewell in Plymouth. By lucky chance, Barbara Laurie's excellent new book, The Changing Face of Bishop Auckland, includes a picture of the foursome being presented with the bell of the Lauenberg.

The bell is being held by Leslie Stott, whose daughter, Jane Hall, lives in Darlington.

She says: "He started as a gopher when he was about 14 and ended up as production manager. He left just before the factory closed in 1973." As the factory in Durham Street was being demolished, Leslie was allowed to take the bell. When he died in 1989, it passed on to his grandson, Malcolm.

"The bell is now down in Wakefield, where Malcolm works, and it sits in his front room in pride of place," says Jane.

SINCE Lingfords featured in Echo Memories a fortnight ago, we have been overwhelmed with information. Many thanks to everyone who has been in touch. There will be more in future weeks.

The company was formed in Bishop Auckland in 1861, when Joseph Lingford joined his brother, Samuel, in a grocery in the town. The brothers were originally from Nottingham, but Joseph brought with him a secret recipe that was to make their name and fortune.

"During Joseph's early lifetime in the city of his birth there was a woman friend of the family who earned the special admiration of the Lingford family by the excellence of her cakes and pastries," says the firm's official history, which was published in 1948.

The woman's secret was her baking powder, and she revealed it to Joseph, who started making it in Bishop Auckland. By 1871, bigger premises were required in Newgate Street and then, in 1888, Joseph opened a "model factory" in Durham Street.

Joseph was a devout Quaker and the 1948 history provides a Quaker quotation that was his guiding light: "It is a good thing to care passionately and desperately about other people, and to spend ourselves in concern for their happiness, and for their welfare."

Joseph did this by involving himself in town affairs: he was president of the local YMCA and Temperance Society, a Justice of the Peace and a member of the county council and the Local Board.

His son, Ernest, ran the model factory, where the staff's welfare was paramount. The firm offered generous holiday pay and a pension scheme. It ran its own savings bank and a convalescent home in Weardale for employees. There were breaks in the working day at 10am and 3pm, and staff were encouraged to join house committees so they "took a share in running the business".

"To relieve the monotony in the factory, radio programmes are relayed by loudspeaker extensions from wireless sets," said the company.

"Suitable programmes are selected and important news items are also relayed."

There was a garden club which allowed 12 local men to use land behind the factory as allotments.

"A nominal rent is charged, but most of the plants, seeds, manure etc are provided free by the company."

The company history also says: "To encourage all-round efficiency, cleanliness and neatness, Lingford badges are presented each year to women employees whose work and general helpfulness during the past year deserves special recognition. Badges are presented by Mr Herbert Muschamp Lingford (Ernest's son) and each holder receives a special gift at the time of the presentation. On each succeeding birthday, badge holders are presented with a special gift by Mr Lingford."

Eileen Hauxwell, of Stapleton, rose to become secretary to the managing director. She remembers: "They were a very strict firm to work for. We wore uniforms in Quaker colours and everything in our office had to be neat and tidy. Each morning the managing director passed down each line of typists to check everything was in order. We were not allowed to speak to each other except on business and, of course, there were no Christian names used.

"Having said this, one learnt to be an efficient secretary and it gave a wonderful grounding for a future career. I remember those days with affection and am still in contact with some of my workmates."

Lingfords was fastidious and the model factory was permanently open to anyone wishing to see what "clean, spic-and-span production means".

"It was a very happy place to work," says an anonymous letter-writer. "I am 80 years old and started work at 14 on leaving school. I went every Monday to the factory for work and Miss Robson looked at your fingernails to check they were clean."

AS well as baking powder, Lingfords made custard powder, blancmange powder and cornflour.

"My eldest son started at Lingfords in 1967," says Mrs E Copeland, of Bishop Auckland. "They were making sherbert at the factory then. When he brought a bag of sherberts home his brothers and sisters used to fight over which flavour they wanted."

LINGFORDS closed in 1973, but its recipe books live on.

"I possess a Lingfords Home Cooking recipe book marked 1/- in the bottom left-hand corner," says Mrs E Hodgson, 87, of Stanley, near Crook. "I still use its recipes with great success."

Ellen Marriott, of Croxdale, kindly sent in a copy of Lingfords 1932 Prize Recipes. Back then, Mrs J Hall, of Low Escomb, was one of the winners with her recipe for Ice Cream Without A Freezer:

"Make one pint of Lingfords Custard in the ordinary way, adding rather more sugar, and pour into a tin with a close-fitting lid. Stand in a large saucepan in which has been placed pieces of ice the size of a walnut. Sprinkle salt on each layer until the pan is full. Seize hold of the tin and twist round and round as quickly as possible for ten minutes. Remove the lid, scrape the frozen parts from the edges, replace the tin and twist constantly for another ten minutes.

"An easier plan is to put the tin containing the custard in a large milk tin, surround with ice and revolve rapidly by means of a handle."

* If you have any information on Lingfords, write to: Echo Memories, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF or send an e-mail to chris.lloyd