Clerk Dorothy Austen Holcroft, Sussex 54 VAD

Dorothy Austen Holcroft was born in Morpeth, Northumberland in about 1888. By the time the 1901 census was taken, however, she was living in Sussex with her parents and two sisters. Dorothy's father, Thomas Austen Holcroft, was a Canadian-born Chuch of England clergyman serving the parish of Bolney in Sussex and living at Bolney vicarage. The family also had four servants as can be seen from the 1901 census return:

Ten years later, the 1911 census return shows the family still residing at Bolney Vicarage:

I knew nothing of Dorothy's service during the First World War until I was contacted in 2020 by a researcher who wrote:

"I am currently researching the female members of the code-breaking organisation formed in the Admiralty during WW1: otherwise known as Room 40 OB or sometimes ID25. At the end of 1919, the remnants of this organisation amalgamated with their counterparts in the War Office to form the Government Code and Cypher School, which has become synonymous with Bletchley Park. Notes made by W F Clarke about colleagues in Room 40 mention a Miss Dorothy A Holcroft from Lewes. Several staff members have also entered their names and addresses in a directory maintained by Clarke, and Dorothy’s handwriting is very similar indeed to the signature in Nurse Oliver’s book, so I’m satisfied we are talking about the same person.

"According to Room 40’s records in The National Archives, Dorothy joined on 1^st Jan 1918. That year she worked in the Naval Mission in Rome before returning to the Admiralty in Oct. This is almost certainly a reference to Room 40’s ‘branch office’ in Rome which employed a number of female clerks. W F Clarke also noted that Dorothy was a graduate, but, as yet, I haven’t established where she studied. Similarly, I don’t know how she came to be recruited into Room 40 or when she left, although there is no indication that she ever joined GC&CS." 

In 1923 Dorothy set sail for India aboard the P&O ship Dongola. Her port of disembarkation was Bombay and she was headed for India to engage in missionary work. It is not clear how long she remained there or where exactly she worked but as I have not found her on the 1939 Register, she may still have been in India at this point in time. Her English address on the passenger list in BT 27 is given as 5 The Avenue, Lewes. Also recorded with her on this page were a Captain Alex Mackay of St Anne's, Lewes and Mrs Anna Sibyl of Sussex. Captain Mackay's name and details are scored through on this return.

Dorothy Holcroft never married and died in Lewes in 1970.