November 7, 2014
War hero: Waterloo math prof had saved millions of lives
Bill Tutte’s work as a code breaker is considered the greatest intellectual achievement of the Second World War
For most of his life, Bill Tutte was forced to keep a secret.
It was one Tutte, who died in 2002, thought would be kept forever but now the acclaimed former University of Waterloo professor is being honoured posthumously for his Second World War efforts.
Tutte, who began his career at the university in 1962 in a branch of math called combinatorics, is considered a hero by many for shortening the war by helping decode messages sent by Hitler's high command.
“He was able to achieve a wonderful career here as a leading mathematician in combinatorics without anyone ever knowing that magnificent contribution he made to the war effort,” said Dan Younger, a professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Waterloo and Tutte's longtime friend.
“He is credited with saving millions of lives on both sides of the conflict,” said Younger. “It was one of the most important achievements in the war. But no one knew. He was not allowed to say what happened during the war.”
Video courtesy of BBC
Tutte joined Bletchley Park at 24
Born in Newmarket, England in 1917, Tutte attended Trinity College, University of Cambridge, where he studied chemistry and later mathematics. When he was 24, Tutte was invited to join the British intelligence agency at Bletchley Park and given an almost impossible task - decipher codes that were being sent on a new teletype system, known as the Lorenz system, without ever seeing the device that produced the complicated codes.
Tutte was able to construct a model of that device and then create algorithms to crack its codes. It allowed the British to access Hitler's most secret communications and led to the early development of the modern computer. His work is considered one of the single biggest intellectual achievements during the war.
Tutte memorial unveiled in England
A few years before Tutte died, details of his achievements were described by a journalist. This led to Tutte receiving the Order of Canada and, in September of this year, the Bill Tutte Memorial was unveiled in his hometown of Newmarket, England.
Part of the sculpture includes six stainless steel panels that stand about seven feet tall and are pierced with holes to represent the punched paper tape used in the transmission of the Lorenz messages. When viewed from a certain direction the holes come together to create an image of Tutte's face.
Younger attended the unveiling of the sculpture. “It was a wonderful thing to be part of,” Younger said. “The fact he was recognized in this way would have been important and gratifying for him.
This is a British mathematician called Bill Tutte. You won't have heard of him, but in 1943 he pulled off what many believed was the greatest intellectual feat of World War 2. It shortened the war, and saved millions of lives. He died in 2002 without ever being officially recognized for his achievement.
This is a former GPO engineer called Tommy Flowers. In 1944, he turned Tutte's mathematical ideas into the world's first computer. He died in 1998. Chances are you won't have heard of him either.
Backed by the brightest talents of Bletchley Park, they allowed Britain to break a top-secret machine employed by Hitler, to dictate the course of the war. This machine was not enigma; it was something far more secret and significant.
And you definitely won't have heard of that.
(Quotes from speakers) "It was Hitler's blackberry really. That intelligence probably shortened the war by a couple of years. They were the forgotten heroes of Bletchley Park."
This is a story of a secret war, and how two men changed the world and then disappeared from history.
