From Bede School to Bletchley Park - the Sunderland enigma who cracked Nazi codes

A Sunderland genius was one of the under cover heroes who cracked Nazi codes in the Second World War.

Joseph Gillis did vital work at Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home which was the principal Allied base for codebreakers.

From Bede School to Bletchley Park

His story has been shared with the Echo by Derek Holcroft who, just days ago, told us about another inspirational Wearsider.

Derek re-lived the story of Bernard Rimmington who was 'in at the beginning of research into radar' according to a 1946 report in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette.

Now Derek has told us more about Joseph who will be remembered by Wearsiders as he attended Bede School.

'Important to the air forces campaign'

Derek added: "He attended Cambridge University afterwards becoming a lecturer in Pure Maths at Belfast’s Queen’s University.

"Impressive enough but it was his time spent as a code breaker at Bletchley Park that really stands him out. Gillis broke the codes in which the Germans sent their weather reports, important to the air forces campaign.

Heroes who deserve the accolades

"He later became a professor at the Weizmann Institute at Rehovot, near Tel-Aviv."

Joseph died in November 1993 but thanks to historian Derek, his name gets the accolade it deserves.

Tell us about a hidden hero from Sunderland's past by emailing [email protected]