Alan Turing’s colleague Gordon Welchman subject of new BBC documentary
A colleague of Alan Turing at Bletchley Park Gordon Welchman, is the subject of a new documentary currently available on the BBC.
Welchman worked along side Turing, as well as Hugh Alexander and Stuart Milner-Barry, on the UK’s codebreaking efforts during World War II.
The documentary, Bletchley Park: Code Breaking’s Forgotten Genius, puts forward the argument that Welchman’s work was just as influential as Turing’s.
Despite working alongside Turing, however, he is often forgotten in retellings of the story such as in the Imitation Game, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing.
Welchman spearheaded the top secret ‘Hut 6’ initiative, which used a refined version of Turing’s Enigma Machine, to intercept bombing messages.
He also worked with the US Military defence during the Cold War.
Heartbreaking new letters from gay codebreaker Alan Turing last week revealed the trauma he went through while being chemically castrated to ‘cure’ his homosexuality.
Turing, often hailed as the grandfather of modern computing, was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ in 1952 after having sex with a man, and was chemically castrated, barred from working for GCHQ, and eventually driven to suicide.
The mathematical genius previously worked at Bletchley Park to crack the German Enigma codes – which is widely believed to have meant an earlier end to World War II.
New letters shed light on the extent of the horrific treatment he was put through at the hands of the state, in misguided attempts to ‘cure’ his sexuality.
The documentary is available to view on BBC iPlayer here here.
