Catherine Caughey

Catherine M. Caughey (née Harvey, 1923 – 12 April 2008) used Colossus computers for codebreaking at Bletchley Park during World War II.[1][2]

The Colossus computer, as operated by Catherine Caughey at Bletchley Park during World War II

Catherine Harvey was born in Kenya and raised on an isolated farm there.[2] was called up for war service in 1943.[1] After thorough interviewing and testing, she was chosen to work as a "Wren" in the Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS), allocated to "Special Duties X" at Bletchley Park. Here from early 1944, she worked in the "Newmanry" (named after Max Newman[3]) using the Colossus computers for deciphering German High Command messages.[4] Later she was responsible for the teleprinter room in the Newmanry, where Tunny (Lorenz cipher) messages were received from the main intercept station located in Kent. After WWII, she attended Dorset House in Oxford, trained as an occupational therapist. Once qualified, she worked at a psychiatric hospital in Oxford.

She was married to Ron Caughey in Oxford, but he died in 1975 before secrecy around wartime work at Bletchley Park was lifted in the same year, 30 years after the end of WWII,[2] followed by the declassification of the 1945 General Report on Tunny in 2000.[5] After marrying, Ron Caughey was awarded a fellowship to work at a children’s hospital in Philadelphia, United States. They moved to New Zealand in 1952 living first in Epsom and later in Remuera. They had a son and a daughter. Catherine Caughey died on 12 April 2008 at a hospital in Auckland.

Caughey published an autobiographical book World Wonderer in the form of her diaries, which was approved by the British Ministry of Defence.[6] She also contributed to a chapter on bombes in The Turing Guide on Alan Turing that appeared posthumously in 2017.[7]

Books

  • Caughey, Catherine M. (1994). World Wanderer. Auckland: Catherine Caughey. (autobiography)

References

  1. 1 2 Copeland, Jack; Bowen, Jonathan; Sprevak, Mark; Wilson, Robin; et al. (2017). "Notes on Contributors". The Turing Guide. Oxford University Press. p. 476. ISBN 978-0198747833.
  2. 1 2 3 "Catherine Caughey's remarkable life". www.stuff.co.nz. New Zealand: stuff. 20 August 2009. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  3. ↑ Copeland, Jack; Caughey, Catherine; Du Boisson, Dorothy; Ireland, Eleanor; Myers, Ken; Thurlow, Norman (2010). "Chapter 13 – Mr Newman's Section". In Copeland, B. Jack. Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers. Oxford University Press. p. 244. ISBN 978-0199578146.
  4. ↑ "About the Contributors". Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers. Retrieved 29 January 2018.
  5. ↑ Baaz, Matthias; Papadimitriou, Christos H.; Putnam, Hilary W.; Scott, Dana S.; Harper, Jr, Charles L., eds. (2014). Kurt Gödel and the Foundations of Mathematics: Horizons of Truth. Cambridge University Press. p. 163. ISBN 978-1107677999.
  6. ↑ Janczewski, Lech; Colarik, Andrew M. (2005). Managerial Guide for Handling Cyber-terrorism and Information Warfare. Idea Group. p. 5. ISBN 978-1591405832.
  7. ↑ Copeland, Jack; Valentine, Jean; Caughey, Catherine (2017). "Chapter 12 – Bombes". In Copeland, Jack; et al. The Turing Guide. pp. 109–107.



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