A war hero who worked at Bletchley Park helping to crack Nazi codes has told of her heartbreak at losing her medal of honour just hours after she received it.

Aileen Gillian MacDermott (88) had waited for 65 years for official recognition of the vital work she did during the Second World War alongside Alan Turing. However, shortly after the Coleraine woman received her badge last Friday she lost it while walking her dog.

Mrs MacDermott was in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (known as the Wrens) during the Second World War working as a decoder at the now famous Bletchley Park, an experience she described as “wonderful” because there was always a “tingle of excitement in the air”.

On Friday she received the badge along with a letter personally signed by Gordon Brown to express “deepest gratitude for the vital service performed during World War II”.

The badge was gold with a dark blue stone and was in the form of a brooch.

Mrs MacDermott fastened it to her coat on Friday before taking her dogs for a walk. She said: “There was a pin on the brooch by which you could fasten it to your clothes but I’m afraid it wasn’t sufficient as, even though I made sure it was on properly, it wasn’t there when I came back from walking the dogs. It obviously fell off somewhere.

“I have searched everywhere — the dustbin, inside the hoover, all around the house really. But it’s nowhere to be found. I have had such generous offers of help from people in the area and we will be going out with metal detectors to have a look in all the places I had been.”

Mrs MacDermott was responsible for deciphering codes sent by Germany and Japan in order to aid the navy, army and airforce during the Second World War.

She was mainly based at Bletchley Park, also known as Station X, in Buckinghamshire but was also stationed in India, Sri Lanka and Gibraltar. The 88-year-old is originally from England but met her husband Max MacDermott during the war when he was a lieutenant commander in the Navy. Mr MacDermott is from Coleraine and the couple moved to Portstewart when the war ended.

The work done at the decoding and ciphering centre has been hailed as providing crucial assistance to the Allied war effort.

Mrs MacDermott called their work “immensely useful” and said there was always a sense of importance in their daily lives.

“We had so many high-ranking people telling us what a great job we were doing and we were treated very well indeed,” she said.

“That’s why it was so wonderful to be honoured after so long.

“It has been waiting for me for 65 years. When it arrived on Friday I was so pleased to see it but it was very short-lived as it wasn’t long afterwards that I realised it was gone. I am just devastated. I think I may be the only person in Northern Ireland to have one like it. I really hope I can find it.”