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THEY helped changed the course of history by cracking secret Nazi codes, cutting the Second World War short by at least two years.

Yet Oliver and Sheila Lawn, who married after meeting at the top-secret Bletchley Park wartime intelligence HQ, could not discuss their triumphs, even with each other.

For nearly four decades both codebreakers kept their lips sealed - completely unaware of what secrets the other had uncovered.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh met the proud couple yesterday, outside the peeling walls of Hut 6, where Oliver worked feverishly to smash encrypted Nazi messages, including the supposedly unbreakable Enigma code, in the darkest days of the war.

Former civil servant Oliver, 92, said last night: "Sheila and I had signed the Official Secrets Act so we never talked about it with one another.

"We were told in no uncertain terms not to mention it so we didn't until books were written on the subject 40-odd years after the war.

"We were told 'walls have ears' and found other things to talk about. It wasn't difficult to keep those secrets from my wife."

Wartime leader Winston Churchill famously described Bletchley's workers as "the geese that laid the golden egg but never cackled".

The codebreakers promised never to speak of what they did or saw at Bletchley Park, the mysterious "Station X" based at the country estate in Buckinghamshire.

Mathematician Oliver helped crack the codes from Nazi army and air force officers that led directly to the defeat of Rommel in the North Africa campaign.

The dad of two, still sprightly and razor-sharp, added: "Wars are not just about the fighting men - intelligence is vital.

"Rommel was defeated because we were intercepting his officers' messages and able to destroy his supplies."

Sheila, meanwhile, translated the German officers' secret orders.

The Inverness-born linguist said: "It was wonderful in the Eighties to finally be able to talk to each other about what we had achieved in the war.

"We are very proud of our work."

The Queen paid tribute to Bletchley's workers yesterday on the lawns of the former intelligence hub.

She said: "It is impossible to overstate the deep sense of admiration, gratitude and national debt that we owe to all those men and, especially, women."

Unveiling an 8ft-high memorial - carrying the words We Also Served - to the men and women who worked at the site near Milton Keynes, the Queen added: "At heart we have always been a nation of problem solvers.

"This natural aptitude was taken to new heights by the emergency of war, showing that necessity is indeed the mother of invention, and that battles can be won, and many lives saved, by using brainpower as well as firepower; deliberation as well as force."

At Bletchley Park, some of Britain's best number crunchers, crossword experts and chess champions tackled the supposedly unbreakable German radio messages sent with their Enigma encryption machines.

Oliver and Sheila were part of a crack team of intelligence staff recruited with a mission to break the unbreakable - the Germans' secret Enigma code.

Bletchley was home to the Government's Code And Cypher School, which obtained signals intelligence by intercepting high-level encrypted enemy radio and teleprinter communications.

There the Colossus hut housed the first programmable electronic computers, designed by engineer Tommy Flowers.

Walsall-born Oliver was a gifted Cambridge University maths undergraduate in July 1940 when he was recruited to the top-secret team of boffins to help crack the clandestine messages.

Oliver said: "Two months before I arrived the Germans had changed codes. It was a clean sheet, we had to start from scratch.

"When I broke a code for the first time I was so excited to be doing my bit for the war effort. After that it became a daily process of breaking codes. At the time we had no idea what our codebreaking revealed and how it helped the war effort.

"Each line we broke went to the intelligence boys, who put it all together and built up a picture of what was happening.

"I didn't discover we had helped defeat Rommel until the 1990s."

Sheila was a languages student from Aberdeen University when she was given just a letter and a phone number and told to report to Bletchley to join the 10,000 other snoopers in 1943.

The grandmother said: "At the time I had no idea where I was going to or what I was going to be doing."

Both she and Oliver were put up in rickety billets and they met at one of Bletchley's many social functions. Oliver, posing for photographs with Sheila beside Bletchley's ornamental lake, said: "I enjoyed the amateur dramatics and the dancing.

"I met Sheila at a party where Scottish reels were being danced. If the weather was good the dances took place on the lawns beside the lake."

"We were both helping crack the codes but never spoke of it. Later, historians said it shortened the war by two years and saved potentially millions of lives.

"But we never spoke of it even decades after the war. We were in the same boat as many people who also kept silent."

While others had their war efforts honoured, the Bletchley team remained in the shadows. The part they played in helping end the war remained largely unknown until historians finally uncovered the truth in the Eighties and Nineties.

Two years ago commemorative badges were awarded to surviving staff by the Government.

Codebreaker Captain Jerry Roberts, 90, was also at yesterday's commemoration.

He said: "I'm very proud of what we did. In 1941 we were in real trouble. The German U-boats were destroying the food ships coming across the Atlantic.

"We would have lost the war if we hadn't broken the Germans' codes."

Simon Greenish, director of the Bletchley Park Trust, said: "There's certainly an argument the codebreakers are being recognised late in the day for what they did. There is no doubt the work at Bletchley shortened the war by several years and saved many, many lives in the process."

During her visit the Queen also saw a rebuilt working Turing Bombe machine which was used to crack the codes.

Former Bombe operator Jean Valentine, who arrived at Bletchley in 1943, said: "My hobby then and now was crosswords.

"I'm good at them and I think that's why I was recruited. It was an honour to show the Queen the machine that did so much for British history."

Yesterday Oliver and Sheila held hands beside the lake where they first met dancing Scottish reels more than 65 years ago.

Welling with pride, Oliver added: "We are so proud the country is finally recognising our achievements.

"Sheila and I now talk about those days all the time."