Shaun Wylie
Encyclopedia
Shaun Wylie was a British
mathematician
and World War II
codebreaker.
, England
, the fourth son of Sir Francis Wylie, later the first Warden of Rhodes House
in Oxford. He was educated at Dragon School
(in Oxford) and then Winchester College
. He won a scholarship to New College, Oxford
where he studied mathematics and classics
. In 1934, he went to study topology
at Princeton University
, obtaining a PhD in 1937 with Solomon Lefschetz
as his supervisor. At Princeton he met fellow English mathematician Alan Turing
. He became a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
in 1938/1939.
, Turing had been recruited to work at Bletchley Park
, Britain's codebreaking centre. Turing wrote to Wylie around December 1940, who was by then teaching at Wellington College
, inviting him to work at Bletchley Park. He accepted, and arrived in February 1941. He joined Turing's section, Hut 8
, which was working on solving the Enigma machine
as used by the German Navy
. He became head of the crib subsection, and allocated time on the bombe
codebreaking machines.
Hugh Alexander
, successor to Turing as head of Hut 8, commented that "except for Turing, no-one made a bigger contribution to the success of Hut 8 than Shaun Wylie; he was astonishingly quick and resourceful and contributed to theory and practice in a number of different directions".
Wylie transferred in Autumn 1943 to work on "Tunny
", a German
teleprinter cipher. He married Odette Murray, a WREN
in the section. In 1945, soon after the victory in Europe, Wylie demonstrated how Colossus
— electronic machines used to help solve Tunny — could have been used unmodified to break the Tunny "motor wheels", a task which had been previously done by hand. While at Bletchley Park, he became president of the dramatic club. He had also played international hockey
for Scotland
, but according to fellow codebreaker I. J. Good
, he "never mentioned any of his successes".
advisor for Frank Adams
, Max Kelly
, Crispin Nash-Williams
, William Tutte and Christopher Zeeman. With Peter Hilton
, he authored Homology Theory: An Introduction to Algebraic Topology, published in 1960.
In 1958, he became Chief Mathematician at GCHQ, the UK signals intelligence organisation. In July 1969, he was sent a draft paper by James H. Ellis
, another GCHQ mathematician, about the possibility of what was termed "non-secret encryption", or what is now more commonly known as public-key cryptography
, on which Wylie commented "unfortunately, I can't see anything wrong with this". He retired in 1973, and taught at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys
(later Hills Road Sixth Form College
) in Cambridge for seven years. He was elected an honorary fellow
at Trinity Hall in 1980.
Wylie supervised five PhD students at Cambridge, through whom he has 788 "descendants" according to the American Mathematical Society
Mathematical Genealogy Project. In addition he influenced the intellectual development of generations of pupils at the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys
/ Hills Road Sixth Form College
where he taught maths and classical Greek and where he also produced plays, such as Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
and coached the school Chess Team which rather than playing other schools, played and usually won against college and university teams. He also came out of retirement temporarily to teach Mathematics at Long Road Sixth Form College.
After retirement from teaching, Wylie was instrumental in the founding of the Liberal Democrats
and in the Cambridge-based University of the Third Age
(U3A) and at the time of his death was preparing to read in the next Cambridge Greek Play, Aeschylus
' Agamemnon
.
Shaun "Doc" Wylie, as he was known to his pupils and students, possessed an incisive insightful intellect and was a man who brought good humour to those around. He was reticent and modest about his many significant accomplishments. He would patiently encourage and coach those who he felt were promising but under-performing. He was an inspiration to those who came in contact with him.
His eldest son, the late Keith Wylie (1945–1999), a barrister
, was a croquet
international and open champion of Great Britain.
He died on October 2, 2009.
British people
The British are citizens of the United Kingdom, of the Isle of Man, any of the Channel Islands, or of any of the British overseas territories, and their descendants...
mathematician
Mathematician
A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study is the field of mathematics. Mathematicians are concerned with quantity, structure, space, and change....
and World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
codebreaker.
Early life
Wylie was born in OxfordOxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, the fourth son of Sir Francis Wylie, later the first Warden of Rhodes House
Rhodes House
Rhodes House is part of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on the south of South Parks Road in central Oxford, and was built in memory of Cecil Rhodes, an alumnus of the university and a major benefactor.- History :...
in Oxford. He was educated at Dragon School
Dragon School
The Dragon School is a British coeducational, preparatory school in the city of Oxford, founded in 1877 as the Oxford Preparatory School, or OPS. It is primarily known as a boarding school, although it also takes day pupils...
(in Oxford) and then Winchester College
Winchester College
Winchester College is an independent school for boys in the British public school tradition, situated in Winchester, Hampshire, the former capital of England. It has existed in its present location for over 600 years and claims the longest unbroken history of any school in England...
. He won a scholarship to New College, Oxford
New College, Oxford
New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always...
where he studied mathematics and classics
Literae Humaniores
Literae Humaniores is the name given to an undergraduate course focused on Classics at Oxford and some other universities.The Latin name means literally "more humane letters", but is perhaps better rendered as "Advanced Studies", since humaniores has the sense of "more refined" or "more learned",...
. In 1934, he went to study topology
Topology
Topology is a major area of mathematics concerned with properties that are preserved under continuous deformations of objects, such as deformations that involve stretching, but no tearing or gluing...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
, obtaining a PhD in 1937 with Solomon Lefschetz
Solomon Lefschetz
Solomon Lefschetz was an American mathematician who did fundamental work on algebraic topology, its applications to algebraic geometry, and the theory of non-linear ordinary differential equations.-Life:...
as his supervisor. At Princeton he met fellow English mathematician Alan Turing
Alan Turing
Alan Mathison Turing, OBE, FRS , was an English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist. He was highly influential in the development of computer science, providing a formalisation of the concepts of "algorithm" and "computation" with the Turing machine, which played a...
. He became a fellow of Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Trinity Hall is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is the fifth-oldest college of the university, having been founded in 1350 by William Bateman, Bishop of Norwich.- Foundation :...
in 1938/1939.
World War II
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Turing had been recruited to work at Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park
Bletchley Park is an estate located in the town of Bletchley, in Buckinghamshire, England, which currently houses the National Museum of Computing...
, Britain's codebreaking centre. Turing wrote to Wylie around December 1940, who was by then teaching at Wellington College
Wellington College, Berkshire
-Former pupils:Notable former pupils include historian P. J. Marshall, architect Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, impressionist Rory Bremner, Adolphus Cambridge, 1st Marquess of Cambridge, author Sebastian Faulks, language school pioneer John Haycraft, political journalist Robin Oakley, actor Sir Christopher...
, inviting him to work at Bletchley Park. He accepted, and arrived in February 1941. He joined Turing's section, Hut 8
Hut 8
Hut 8 was a section at Bletchley Park tasked with solving German naval Enigma messages. The section was led initially by Alan Turing...
, which was working on solving the Enigma machine
Enigma machine
An Enigma machine is any of a family of related electro-mechanical rotor cipher machines used for the encryption and decryption of secret messages. Enigma was invented by German engineer Arthur Scherbius at the end of World War I...
as used by the German Navy
German Navy
The German Navy is the navy of Germany and is part of the unified Bundeswehr .The German Navy traces its roots back to the Imperial Fleet of the revolutionary era of 1848 – 52 and more directly to the Prussian Navy, which later evolved into the Northern German Federal Navy...
. He became head of the crib subsection, and allocated time on the bombe
Bombe
The bombe was an electromechanical device used by British cryptologists to help decipher German Enigma-machine-encrypted signals during World War II...
codebreaking machines.
Hugh Alexander
Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander
Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, CMG, CBE was an Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer. He worked on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during World War II, and was later the head of the cryptanalysis division at GCHQ for over 20 years...
, successor to Turing as head of Hut 8, commented that "except for Turing, no-one made a bigger contribution to the success of Hut 8 than Shaun Wylie; he was astonishingly quick and resourceful and contributed to theory and practice in a number of different directions".
Wylie transferred in Autumn 1943 to work on "Tunny
Lorenz cipher
The Lorenz SZ40, SZ42A and SZ42B were German rotor cipher machines used by the German Army during World War II. They were developed by C. Lorenz AG in Berlin. They implemented a Vernam stream cipher...
", a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
teleprinter cipher. He married Odette Murray, a WREN
Women's Royal Naval Service
The Women's Royal Naval Service was the women's branch of the Royal Navy.Members included cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, radar plotters, weapons analysts, range assessors, electricians and air mechanics...
in the section. In 1945, soon after the victory in Europe, Wylie demonstrated how Colossus
Colossus computer
Not to be confused with the fictional computer of the same name in the movie Colossus: The Forbin Project.Colossus was the world's first electronic, digital, programmable computer. Colossus and its successors were used by British codebreakers to help read encrypted German messages during World War II...
— electronic machines used to help solve Tunny — could have been used unmodified to break the Tunny "motor wheels", a task which had been previously done by hand. While at Bletchley Park, he became president of the dramatic club. He had also played international hockey
Hockey
Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick.-Etymology:...
for Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, but according to fellow codebreaker I. J. Good
I. J. Good
Irving John Good was a British mathematician who worked as a cryptologist at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing. After World War II, Good continued to work with Turing on the design of computers and Bayesian statistics at the University of Manchester...
, he "never mentioned any of his successes".
Post-war
After the war, he was a fellow at Trinity Hall until 1958 and lectured in mathematics. He was the Ph.D.Ph.D.
A Ph.D. is a Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree.Ph.D. may also refer to:* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group*Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip*PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* PhD Docbook renderer, an XML renderer...
advisor for Frank Adams
Frank Adams
John Frank Adams FRS was a British mathematician, one of the founders of homotopy theory.-Life:He was born in Woolwich, a suburb in south-east London. He began research as a student of Abram Besicovitch, but soon switched to algebraic topology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of...
, Max Kelly
Max Kelly
Gregory Maxwell Kelly, 1930-2007, mathematician, founded the thriving Australian school of category theory.A native of Australia, Kelly obtained his Ph.D. at Cambridge University in homological algebra in 1957, publishing his first paper in that area in 1959, Single-space axioms for homology theory...
, Crispin Nash-Williams
Crispin St. J. A. Nash-Williams
Crispin St. John Alvah Nash-Williams was a British and Canadian mathematician. His research interest was in the field of discrete mathematics, especially graph theory....
, William Tutte and Christopher Zeeman. With Peter Hilton
Peter Hilton
Peter John Hilton was a British mathematician, noted for his contributions to homotopy theory and for code-breaking during the Second World War.-Life:Hilton was born in London, and educated at St Paul's School...
, he authored Homology Theory: An Introduction to Algebraic Topology, published in 1960.
In 1958, he became Chief Mathematician at GCHQ, the UK signals intelligence organisation. In July 1969, he was sent a draft paper by James H. Ellis
James H. Ellis
James Henry Ellis was a British engineer and mathematician. In 1970, while working at the Government Communications Headquarters in Cheltenham he conceived of the possibility of "non-secret encryption", more commonly termed public-key cryptography.-Early life, education and career:Ellis was born...
, another GCHQ mathematician, about the possibility of what was termed "non-secret encryption", or what is now more commonly known as public-key cryptography
Public-key cryptography
Public-key cryptography refers to a cryptographic system requiring two separate keys, one to lock or encrypt the plaintext, and one to unlock or decrypt the cyphertext. Neither key will do both functions. One of these keys is published or public and the other is kept private...
, on which Wylie commented "unfortunately, I can't see anything wrong with this". He retired in 1973, and taught at Cambridgeshire High School for Boys
Cambridgeshire High School for Boys
The Cambridgeshire High School for Boys was founded as the Cambridge and County School for Boys in Cambridge, England, in 1900.-History:...
(later Hills Road Sixth Form College
Hills Road Sixth Form College
Hills Road Sixth Form College is a state funded co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England, providing full-time AS and A-level courses for approximately 1,800 sixth form students from the surrounding area and a wide variety of courses to around 4,000 part-time students of all ages in...
) in Cambridge for seven years. He was elected an honorary fellow
Honorary title (academic)
Honorary titles in academia may be conferred on persons in recognition of contributions by a non-employee or by an employee beyond regular duties...
at Trinity Hall in 1980.
Wylie supervised five PhD students at Cambridge, through whom he has 788 "descendants" according to the American Mathematical Society
American Mathematical Society
The American Mathematical Society is an association of professional mathematicians dedicated to the interests of mathematical research and scholarship, which it does with various publications and conferences as well as annual monetary awards and prizes to mathematicians.The society is one of the...
Mathematical Genealogy Project. In addition he influenced the intellectual development of generations of pupils at the Cambridgeshire High School for Boys
Cambridgeshire High School for Boys
The Cambridgeshire High School for Boys was founded as the Cambridge and County School for Boys in Cambridge, England, in 1900.-History:...
/ Hills Road Sixth Form College
Hills Road Sixth Form College
Hills Road Sixth Form College is a state funded co-educational sixth form college in Cambridge, England, providing full-time AS and A-level courses for approximately 1,800 sixth form students from the surrounding area and a wide variety of courses to around 4,000 part-time students of all ages in...
where he taught maths and classical Greek and where he also produced plays, such as Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard
The Cherry Orchard is Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's last play. It premiered at the Moscow Art Theatre 17 January 1904 in a production directed by Constantin Stanislavski. Chekhov intended this play as a comedy and it does contain some elements of farce; however, Stanislavski insisted on...
and coached the school Chess Team which rather than playing other schools, played and usually won against college and university teams. He also came out of retirement temporarily to teach Mathematics at Long Road Sixth Form College.
After retirement from teaching, Wylie was instrumental in the founding of the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
and in the Cambridge-based University of the Third Age
University of the Third Age
The University of the Third Age is an international organisation whose aims are the education and stimulation of retired members of the community - those in the third 'age' of life. It is commonly referred to as U3A.- France :...
(U3A) and at the time of his death was preparing to read in the next Cambridge Greek Play, Aeschylus
Aeschylus
Aeschylus was the first of the three ancient Greek tragedians whose work has survived, the others being Sophocles and Euripides, and is often described as the father of tragedy. His name derives from the Greek word aiskhos , meaning "shame"...
' Agamemnon
Agamemnon
In Greek mythology, Agamemnon was the son of King Atreus and Queen Aerope of Mycenae, the brother of Menelaus, the husband of Clytemnestra, and the father of Electra and Orestes. Mythical legends make him the king of Mycenae or Argos, thought to be different names for the same area...
.
Shaun "Doc" Wylie, as he was known to his pupils and students, possessed an incisive insightful intellect and was a man who brought good humour to those around. He was reticent and modest about his many significant accomplishments. He would patiently encourage and coach those who he felt were promising but under-performing. He was an inspiration to those who came in contact with him.
His eldest son, the late Keith Wylie (1945–1999), a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
, was a croquet
Croquet
Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting plastic or wooden balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court.-History:...
international and open champion of Great Britain.
He died on October 2, 2009.
External links
- Photograph of Christopher Zeeman and Shaun Wylie taken 25 February 2000.
- Obituary, The Daily TelegraphThe Daily TelegraphThe Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
, 21 October 2009.