Catherine Caughey

Catherine Mary Caughey {{post-nominals|country=NZL|MBE|size=85%}} (née Harvey, 8 December 1923 – 12 April 2008) used Colossus computers for codebreaking at Bletchley Park during World War II.{{cite book| authorlink1=Jack Copeland | last1=Copeland | first1=Jack | authorlink2=Jonathan Bowen | last2=Bowen | first2=Jonathan | last3=Sprevak | first3=Mark | authorlink4=Robin Wilson (mathematician) | last4=Wilson | first4=Robin |display-authors=et al | title=The Turing Guide | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=2017 | isbn=978-0198747833 | pages=476 | chapter=Notes on Contributors }}{{cite web| url=http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/features/451554/Catherine-Caugheys-remarkable-life | title=Catherine Caughey's remarkable life | website=www.stuff.co.nz | publisher=stuff | location=New Zealand | date=20 August 2009 | accessdate=29 January 2018 }}

Early life

Catherine Mary Harvey was born in Eldoret, Kenya, on 8 December 1923,{{cite book |last1=Taylor |first1=Alister |last2=Coddington |first2=Deborah |authorlink1=Alister Taylor |authorlink2=Deborah Coddington |title=Honoured by the Queen – New Zealand |year=1994 |publisher=New Zealand Who's Who Aotearoa |location=Auckland |isbn=0-908578-34-2 |pages=93–94}} and spent her early life on an isolated farm there. She was educated in England, at St Mary's School, Calne in Wiltshire, and Harcombe House Domestic Science School, in Dorset.

World War II service

File:Colossus.jpg, as operated by Catherine Caughey at Bletchley Park during World War II]]

Harvey was called up for war service in 1943. 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{{cite book| title=Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers | editor-first=B. Jack | editor-last=Copeland | first1=Jack | last1=Copeland | first2=Catherine | last2=Caughey | first3=Dorothy | last3=Du Boisson | authorlink3=Dorothy Du Boisson | first4=Eleanor | last4=Ireland | authorlink4=Eleanor Ireland | first5=Ken | last5=Myers | first6=Norman | last6=Thurlow | chapter=Chapter 13 – Mr Newman's Section | chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e6ocfloTkJ4C&pg=PT244 | pages=244 | publisher=Oxford University Press | date=2010 | isbn=978-0199578146 }}) using the Colossus computers for deciphering German High Command messages.{{cite web| url=http://www.colossus-computer.com/authors.htm | title=About the Contributors | work=Colossus: The Secrets of Bletchley Park's Codebreaking Computers | accessdate=29 January 2018 }} 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.

Post-war life

After the war, Harvey attended Dorset House in Oxford, trained as an occupational therapist. Once qualified, she worked at a psychiatric hospital in Oxford.

In 1950, she married Ron Caughey in Oxford. Ron Caughey was awarded a fellowship to work at a children’s hospital in Philadelphia, United States. The couple then moved to Auckland, New Zealand, in 1952, living first in Epsom and later in Remuera. They had a son and a daughter. In 1975, Catherine Caughey became a naturalised New Zealand citizen.{{cite web |url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=try&db=NZNaturalisations&h=56752 |title=New Zealand, naturalisations, 1843–1981 |year=2010 |publisher=Ancestry.com Operations |accessdate=25 June 2019 |url-access=subscription}}

Ron Caughey died in 1975 before secrecy around wartime work at Bletchley Park was lifted in the same year, 30 years after the end of World War II, followed by the declassification of the 1945 General Report on Tunny in 2000.{{cite book| title=Kurt Gödel and the Foundations of Mathematics: Horizons of Truth | editor-first1=Matthias | editor-last1=Baaz | editor-first2=Christos H. | editor-last2=Papadimitriou | editor-first3=Hilary W. | editor-last3=Putnam | editor-first4=Dana S. | editor-last4=Scott | editor-link4=Dana Scott | editor-first5=Charles L. | editor-last5=Harper, Jr | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tg0WXU5_8EgC&pg=PA163 | page=163 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | date=2014 | isbn=978-1107677999 }}

Caughey was active in the Girl Guides in New Zealand, serving on the national council and executive, and in 1976 she was appointed honorary vice president for the Auckland province. In 1978, she founded the Auckland Multicultural Society, and served as its president. In the 1994 New Year Honours, Caughey was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire, for services to the community.{{London Gazette |issue=53528 |date=31 December 1993 |page=34 |supp=2}}

In 1994, Caughey published the autobiographical book World Wanderer in the form of her diaries, which was approved by the British Ministry of Defence.{{cite book| title=Managerial Guide for Handling Cyber-terrorism and Information Warfare | first1=Lech | last1=Janczewski | first2=Andrew M. | last2=Colarik | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9C8qX6Ul2bIC&pg=PA5 | page=5 | publisher=Idea Group | date=2005 | isbn=978-1591405832 }} She also contributed to a chapter on bombes in The Turing Guide on Alan Turing that appeared posthumously in 2017.{{cite book| last1=Copeland | first1=Jack | authorlink1=Jack Copeland | last2=Valentine | first2=Jean | authorlink2=Jean Valentine (bombe operator) | last3=Caughey | first3=Catherine | year=2017 | chapter=Chapter 12 – Bombes | editor-last1=Copeland | editor-first1=Jack |editor-link1=Jack Copeland |display-editors=etal| title=The Turing Guide | pages=109–107 }} She died in Auckland on 12 April 2008, and her body was cremated at Purewa Crematorium.{{cite web |url=http://www.purewa.co.nz/view/?id=127588 |title=Burial & cremation details |publisher=Purewa Cemetery and Crematorium |accessdate=25 June 2019}}

Publications

{{cite book| title=World Wanderer | first=Catherine M. | last=Caughey | publisher=Catherine Caughey | location=Auckland | date=1994 | url=https://www.abebooks.com/first-edition/World-Wanderer-Catherine-M-Caughey-Auckland/979419532/bd }} (autobiography)