Professor David Rees - Cryptoanalyst at Bletchley Park
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Sounds like a good idea to have a WWII group. Over and out, wingco!
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Professor David Rees - Cryptoanalyst at Bletchley Park
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This is the fourth time I've tried to reply. Each time, the site tells me that I've typed nothing (indeed I had to retype the entire original discussion as it said there was nothing there!). Sorry I didn't respond before but I only saw your message on my phone and I can't do anything on that. There was a small picture of him in The Times, which I rescued from the bin and I'll post it when I get home at the weekend.
Professor David Rees - Cryptoanalyst at Bletchley Park
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An obituary appeared in The Times today for Professor David Rees, a brilliant mathematician born in Abergavenny on 29 May, 1918. He died on 16 August, 2013, aged 95. I summarise his achievements here, using the details given in the obituary.
He was the son of a corn merchant and his wife and the fourth of five children. Educated at King Henry VIII Grammar School, he and two of his siblings would do sums for fun at home and once, when he was confined for several months at home with tonsillitis, his mother borrowed mathematical books for him from the library. His great-great grandfather, Thomas Rees, was considered one of the first mathematicians in Wales.
He won a scholarship to Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge where he took a First. In 1939, he was doing postgraduate work at Cambridge when he was invited to join the Code and Cipher School at Bletchley Park. He was one of a team of cryptoanalysts there and in May 1940, when Germany was on the point of invading France, they needed to crack the "Red" cipher which the Luftwaffe used to communicate with ground troops. On 10 May, Rees found the clusters which broke the cipher; his colleagues stood on tables and cheered. Later, he worked with the Colossus computer which made breaking codes much easier.
He didn't speak of his involvement until 1974, when FW Winterbotham published The Ultra Secret and was then very modest about his achievements.
After the war, he moved to Manchester where he was involved in pioneering work at the university which led to the building of the first mainframe computers. In 1949, he returned to Cambridge and then in 1958 he was appointed chair of Pure Mathematics at Exeter, where he also served as Dean and Deputy Vice Chancellor.
His students once gave him a "Patrick Moore lookalike award".
In 1968, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. The Rees Matrix Representation Theorem, the Rees Matrix Semigroup and the Rees Factor, along with the Artin-Rees Lemma and the Rees Ring of Ideal are all named for him as a result of his work.
He married Joan Cushen, also a mathematician, and had four daughters. Two of his daughters are also professors of mathematics (one is also a member of the Royal Society). His wife died only twelve days after him.
A Welshman of whom to be proud.
updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:38:58PM
King Arthur's Bones and The Medieval Murderers
Welsh History
As members of Americymru will know from Ceri's interview with Sir Bernard Knight, The Medieval Murderers is a group of crime writers (including Sir Bernard) who collaborate to write a historical mystery.
I picked up King Arthur's Bones this week, in Carmarthen, and thoroughly enjoyed the story which begins in Glastonbury in 1191 and ends in London in 2004.
I won't give too much away but, quite clearly from the title, the story is about the discovery at Glastonbury of bones which appear to be those of King Arthur. The late 12th century was a crushing period for the Welsh and the bones of King Arthur would, of course, have provided the English with yet another hammer with which to hit us. Conversely, the bones would provide a rallying point for the Welsh, assuming they could be rescued and kept safe.
This provides the basis of the story and we see attempts to move the bones to safety over the next 8 centuries. If you want to know how it ends, you'll have to read the book!
Act One is written by Susanna Gregory (a nom de plume) who, I believe, lives in Carmarthenshire and of whom I am a great fan. I recommend her Matthew Bartholomew series, of which I think there are now about 20 books, These are set in 14th century Cambridge and are very well-researched. Matthew is a physician who is considered to have some rather avant-garde methods (he studied under an Arab doctor and believes in cleanliness) and, unlike his fellow physicians, is willing to treat the poor and does not believe in casting horoscopes. Along with his friend and colleague, Brother Michael, he investigates crimes in the town. There's a fair amount of gore and mystery but also a lot of humour.
She also writes a series set in Restoration London, about a character called Thomas Chaloner. These are also enjoyable.
The Medieval Murderers' books are a good way of enjoying a historical mystery and getting to know the style of each writer. Because of their stories, I've moved on to Bernard Knight''s own novels and those of Susanna Gregory.
updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:38:57PM
Wales and its similarity to Jupiter's moon, Europa?
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The Times tells us today that scientists from the European Space Agency (ESA) is using an MoD firing range at Pendine Sands to simulate a mission to Jupiter's frozen moon, Europa. While tourists frolic in the sunshine, a few miles away, a team of scientists is simulating a penetration mission to Europa. The surface of Europa is represented by a huge ice cube which is proving difficult to keep cold in the current weather. A probe will be fired along 300m of railway into the block. The idea is that within a decade, a real probe can be sent to Europa to do some drilling and beam back information to Earth. The mission will take 8 years to reach Europa so many of us will be gaga or in the Elysian Fields by then.
Of course, what they don't realise is that the Welsh Space Agency have already reached Jupiter and Europa. See www.welshspaceagency.org
updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:38:57PM
Welshmen at Hopton Castle in the English Civil War
Welsh History
Yet again last night I got caught up in watching an old (2009) Time Team episode, this time about Hopton Castle in Shropshire.
You might ask what that has to do with Wales and the Welsh but in fact a number of the 30 Parliamentarian (Roundhead) defenders at the battle of Hopton Castle, during the Civil War, were Welsh. We know this because the commander of the castle at the time kept scrupulous records; the names of all 30 men were listed and some, clearly Welsh, have the letter "W" following their names which indicates they were actually from Wales, as opposed to Welsh people living in the Marches. In 1644, this castle was one of very few places in the west of the country to be held by Roundhead troops and was besieged for several weeks by the Royalists before surrendering. After the surrender, the Royalist commander apparently killed all the troops (though not their commander) and had them buried either in a cellar or in a muddy ditch.
If you look at www.hoptoncastle.org.uk , you will see a rather romantic-looking castle keep which is all that remains of the medieval (probably early 14th century) castle. What became clear during Time Team's 3-day dig was that at the time of the Civil War, the place was not so much a castle as a country manor. There was a large, brick-built and rather grand 3-storey house and wooden outbuildings.
Time Team's "mission" was to find out more about what the place looked like, in which they were very successful, and, hopefully, find out where those poor men were buried. They simply didn't have the time to do the latter.
What they did find was a 9lb cannon ball, a human tooth (probably knocked out during hand-to-hand fighting) and a beautiful "quarter-laurel" gold coin with the head of James I of England (he was also James VI of Scotland) from the early 1620s.
The massacre of the men at the castle became known as "the Hopton Quarter" and the story goes that the Royalist commander, Colonel Woodhouse, later had to surrender at Ludlow; remembering what he himself had done at Hopton, he asked that he be allowed to surrender to anyone but the erstwhile commander of Hopton Castle as he feared revenge.
As for the Welsh soldiers,we have no idea whether their families ever found out what had happened to them; a few with Welsh names were presumably local as they didn't have the letter "W" after their names but the others must have travelled from Wales only to lose their lives quite horrifically defending an almost indefensible country home.
www.channel4.com/programmes/time-team/articles/hopton-castle-dig-report
updated by @gaynor-madoc-leonard: 11/11/15 10:38:57PM
The Welsh Space Campaign
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Wonderful. You could even outdo Commander Hadfield by having massed male voice choirs on earth and the astronauts in space singingMae'n Hen Wladtogether (and maybe Morgan the Moon too).
The Big Welsh Challenge
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This seems very good. I've just tweeted it.
