Gordon Welchman

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(William) Gordon Welchman (June 15, 1906 – October 8, 1985) was a British mathematician and World War II codebreaker at Bletchley Park.

Contents 1 Education and early career 2 At Bletchley Park 3 After World War II 4 See also 5 References

[edit] Education and early career

Gordon Welchman studied Mathematics as a scholar at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1925 to 1928. In 1929 he became a college lecturer in mathematics at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge.

[edit] At Bletchley Park

Just before World War 2, Welchman was invited by Commander Alastair Denniston to join the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park in case war broke out.

Welchman envisaged an enhancement to Alan Turing's design for an electromechanical codebreaking machine, the bombe. Welchman's enhancement, the "diagonal board," rendered the device more efficient in breaking messages enciphered on the German Enigma machine. Bombes became a primary tool for decrypting Enigma during the war.

Welchman was head of Hut Six, the section at Bletchley Park responsible for breaking German Army and Air Force Enigma ciphers.

[edit] After World War II

Welchman moved to the United States in 1948 and became a naturalised citizen in 1962. In that year, he joined the MITRE Corporation, working on secure communications systems for the US military. He retired in 1971. In 1982, he published The Hut Six Story.

[edit] See also

• History of cryptography

[edit] References

• Gordon Welchman, The Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes, first edition 1982; revised edition: M & M Baldwin, December 1997, ISBN 0-947712-34-8.
• Robin Denniston, "Welchman, (William) Gordon (1906-1985)" in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004.