Benedict Cumberbatch and Alan Turing are related, genealogists claim

Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor, is distantly related to Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing, genealogists have claimed.

Cumberbatch plays Turing, who cracked the Enigma code in the Second World War, in the newly-released biopic The Imitation Game, starring alongside Keira Knightley and Allen Leech.

Researchers from Ancestry, the family history website, have now found the actor is related to Turing himself, making them 17th cousins dating back to the 14th century.

They claim both were related to John Beaufort, the first Earl of Somerset, who was born around 1373 and can be traced through both their paternal lines.

Cumberbatch’s family tree also showed his third cousin twice removed, Noel Carlisle Rees, was responsible for smuggling thousands of Allied soldiers out of Greece during the Second World War while working for British Military Intelligence.

His paternal grandfather, Henry Carlton Cumberbatch, also served between 1919 and 1929 as a Sub-Lieutenant, Lieutenant, and Lieutenant Commander, with records describing him as a “crack shot with a rifle” on top of his “good physique and forceful personality”.

Researchers also claim to have found links with a tea planter in India, the actor’s second great-grandfather John Paul Ferguson, and a connection to Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, who was identified as his sixth cousin.

Miriam Silverman, UK content manager for Ancestry, said: “It would seem that there is a flair for espionage and bravery that has descended down multiple generations of Benedict Cumberbatch’s family tree.

“It’s amazing to think that when stepping into the role of Alan Turing, he would not only be portraying a world class code breaker but a real life relation.”

^{A family tree shows the relationship between Benedict Cumberbatch and Alan Turing (ancestry.com)}