Of members of the Bletchley Chess Club Team (GC&CS) Golf Club and Chess Society. Spare a thought for Board 3, John Macrae Aitken, e.g. From the Chess Scotland website { Mr Alan Gowan’s very helpful compilation.} Here with his doctorate title.
http://www.chessscotland.com/history/1958champ.htm
Aiken played an important part in the Battle of Britain. Aitkenismus, on operational security flaws. One of the best ways of obtaining cribs. However, today we more remember Hevriel. This is most likely when Gordon Welchman was showing Churchill around one day and said of Hevriel (The Hevriel tip) this man won the Battle of Britain. Also Aitken cannot be named in publications because he was very active post the Korean War. (He re-joined Hugh Alexander at Cheltenham in 1953 – Alan Turing being rendered useless with his security clearance gone. Then you are just history). (The case of the dog that did not bark in the night syndrome).
When there was a real threat of Invasion (Operation Sealion) up and down the country Home Guard units were formed. (Pure Dads Army experiences did happen. The scripts were based on true characters and some real events).
Bletchley Park Codebreakers were no exception. There was one important rule, do not stand next to the little Scotsman when there was bayonet training. High degree of risk as he fumbled with his kit.
However, Alan Turing was also to experience the wrath of the parade ground Sergeant the most. Turing thought of logic and division of labour. He was no bootie, doing squad bashing, he had more valuable things to do with his time. (Very logical, does not compute Captain, kind of Vulcan.). So, Alan Turing off to the guard house again. The going through the signed Kings Regulations is yet another story!!!
However in films like the Imitation Game, plus other films, you would see Alan Turing up against security (The head of Security was Kim Philby). But, this was far more important when the Korean War broke out. Can you guess Cheltenham ground to a halt? – worth a punt, a long term betting tip from me, for after I am dead and gone, a hundred years rule type of thing).
Imagine Dr Aitken’s face when he started seeing decrypts of the Soviet Cambridge Spy Ring. Kim Philby and then John Cairncross (that little Scotsmen in the Imitation Game film).
But, Imaging how Joe Stalin felt like, after hearing that his country was being invaded. (Operation Barbarossa). He had dismissed that part of the reports he had obtained from Kim Philby. Kim Philby was supplying pure Gold from Ultra. How different would the WWII have been?
However, Stalin was not alone. BP was supplying the British top brass sanitised Ultra material disguised as, our agent reports. So the Donkeys, who led the Lions syndrome, had such reports binned. Like the invasion of Norway, the Invasion of the Low Countries 10th May 1940. It was not till the Battle of Britain and eventually with the Navy with the sinking of the Bismarck that BP was fully accepted as vital.
Of Dr Aitken, the chess player.(see also posts about Lud Eagle). I played him in the penultimate round of the Lloyds Bank Masters, Guernsey October 1983. He tried so hard to win as Black. Could have been his swansong. He would have likely got my board 1 pairing in the last round, above at least 10 IMs (and a GM I believe). BTW: The Board 2 pairing next to me was an untitled N L Carr. Across several boards down there were R Bellin, H J Plaskett and foreign Masters etc.
So, I rate Dr J M Aitken as a much stronger player than what has been posted here.
I would like to have had a post mortem with him. However, there was an altercation and intervention from somebody else. It did not happen. Dr Aitken left the tournament hall shaking his fists. He died in Cheltenham. Look at the National Club board – see who is engraved as the first team winners of that competition.