Dick Kimball: Gordon Welshman

January 9, 2016

Dick Kimball: Discusses "Gordon Welchman, the hidden genius of Bletchley Park"

luncheon meeting at

McCormick and Schmick’s Seafood Grille

600 Ashwood Parkway, 

(next door to Brio Restaurant. Dunwoody)

Dunwoody, GA 30338

770 399 9900

12:00 Noon (come early to socialize)

pay your own tab

Gordon Welchman was one of the original elite code breakers crucial to the allies defeating the Nazis in World War II. He is the forgotten genius of Bletchley Park.

Filmed extensively at Bletchley Park, the center for English code breaking operations during World War II, this documentary features the abandoned buildings where thousands of people worked tirelessly trying to crack the codes, Hut 6, where Welchman pioneered his groundbreaking work, and the machines that Welchman helped design.

Post-war, Welchman moved to the United States to be at the nerve center of the computer revolution. He was employed by the Mitre Corporation, a US defense contractor, and engaged in top secret work. Recently released top secret documents reveal that the case of Gordon Welchman involving the publication of his recollections of the work at Bletchley in Hut 6, reached the desk of the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and then led to questions being asked in the House of Commons after Welchman's untimely death. Welchman's legacy continues to this day as Professor John Naughton and former CIA analyst Cynthia Storer reveal how Welchman's pioneering work in the field of traffic analysis led directly to the modern secret surveillance state, and particularly the use of metadata - as revealed by whistle blower Edward Snowden. Welchman earned the ire of the National Security Agency by writing the first “tell all” book about Bletchley, subsequently losing his security clearances.

  This video and discussion should prove to be quite interesting.

© The Chartwell Group 2012