Alexander Shafto "Sandy" Douglas

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(21 May 1921 – 29 April 2010) was a British professor of

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

, credited with creating the first graphical computer game OXO, a

Noughts and Crosses Tic-tac-toe (American English), noughts and crosses (Commonwealth English), or Xs and Os (Canadian or Irish English) is a paper-and-pencil game for two players who take turns marking the spaces in a three-by-three grid with ''X'' or ''O''. T ...

computer game in 1952 on the

EDSAC The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'', the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the Universi ...

computer at

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

Biography

Early life

Douglas was born on 21 May 1921 in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

. At age eight, his family moved to

Cromwell Road Cromwell Road is a major London road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, designated as part of the A4. It was created in the 19th century and is said to be named after Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell, who once owned a hou ...

, near what would become the London Air Terminal.

A 74 bus ride for one old penny took me to Exhibition Road, from which I could go towards South Kensington station to my father's office (which is still there) and workshop (now demolished) down by what became the Lycée Français. Alternatively, I could turn north to the Science Museum – a trip I took often.

In the winter of 1938–39, Douglas and his future wife Andrey Parker made a snowman in the grounds of the

Natural History Museum A natural history museum or museum of natural history is a scientific institution with natural history collections that include current and historical records of animals, plants, fungi, ecosystems, geology, paleontology, climatology, and more. ...

. Douglas and his wife would go on to have two children and at least two grandsons. During the

Blitz Blitz, German for "lightning", may refer to: Military uses *Blitzkrieg, blitz campaign, or blitz, a type of military campaign *The Blitz, the German aerial campaign against Britain in the Second World War *, an Imperial German Navy light cruiser b ...

, in 1940–41, Douglas's

Home Guard Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense. The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...

Unit, 'C' Company of the Chelsea and Kensington Battalion of the KRRC, had its headquarters in the basement of the

Royal School of Mines The Royal School of Mines comprises the departments of Earth Science and Engineering, and Materials at Imperial College London. The Centre for Advanced Structural Ceramics and parts of the London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Bioe ...

, just the other side of

Exhibition Road Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. Overview The road gets i ...

from the museums. He appeared to commission into the

Corps of Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

on 7 March 1943 as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

, but this was later corrected to show that he actually commissioned into the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

Cambridge

Douglas attended the

in 1950. In 1952, while working towards earning his PhD, he wrote a

thesis A thesis ( : theses), or dissertation (abbreviated diss.), is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings.International Standard ISO 7144: ...

which focused on human-computer interactions and he needed an example to prove his theories. At that time, Cambridge was home to the second

stored-program computer A stored-program computer is a computer that stores program instructions in electronically or optically accessible memory. This contrasts with systems that stored the program instructions with plugboards or similar mechanisms. The definition i ...

, the

or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (the first being

Manchester University , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...

's "

Baby An infant or baby is the very young offspring of human beings. ''Infant'' (from the Latin word ''infans'', meaning 'unable to speak' or 'speechless') is a formal or specialised synonym for the common term ''baby''. The terms may also be used to ...

", which ran its first program on 21 June 1948). This gave Douglas the opportunity to prove his findings by programming the code for a simple game where a player can compete against the computer, OXO.

Jobs

Trinity College

1953–1957 1953: Elected as a Prize Fellow of

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, Douglas spends a year at the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

Computation laboratory as assistant Professor. 1955: Became Junior Bursar of Trinity College. The Junior Bursar is responsible for the administration of the College buildings: allocation of accommodation, building works, security, staff, and general maintenance

Leeds

1957: The Leeds

Pegasus Pegasus ( grc-gre, Πήγασος, Pḗgasos; la, Pegasus, Pegasos) is one of the best known creatures in Greek mythology. He is a winged divine stallion usually depicted as pure white in color. He was sired by Poseidon, in his role as hor ...

computer was installed in autumn 1957 in the Eldon Chapel on Woodhouse Lane. Douglas set up the Computer Laboratory of the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

, and it was there that he first became interested in the application of computers to business problems

The Pegasus holds an especial place in my affection, it being the machine I installed as the central University machine in a disused chapel in Leeds in 1957 – it was known as Lucifer, for Leeds University Computing Installation (FERranti). Our au pair girl from Spain made a beautiful little devilish doll which decorated the machine – it has probably disappeared by now.

In June 1960 the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals set up a Working Party to explore the creation of a national system for handling university admissions. Douglas was appointed a member of the Working Party to provide advice on the use of computers in this system. He had previously worked at Leeds with Ronald Kay, who was to become UCCA's general secretary, on "an early and primitive but successful attempt to introduce computer methods into student registration procedures".

CEIR

1960: Entered the commercial field as Technical Director of the UK subsidiary of C-E-I-R (now Scientific Control Systems).

Leasco

1968: Left CEIR to initiate the European software interests of Leasco Systems and Research Ltd. as chairman. Douglas died in sleep on 29 April 2010 from

pneumonia Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung primarily affecting the small air sacs known as alveoli. Symptoms typically include some combination of productive or dry cough, chest pain, fever, and difficulty breathing. The severity ...

Writings

Over 60 papers have been published by Professor Douglas covering topics in Atomic Physics, Crystallography, Solution of Differential Equations, Computer Design, Programming and Operational Research in the Shipbuilding, Oil Chemical Mining, Engineering and Transportation Industries, and in the Printing Industry. * Computers and Society: an Inaugural Lecture [Delivered on 27 April 1972, by Alexander Shafto Douglas; Publisher: London School of Economics and P; Date Published: 1973. . * Science Journal, October 1970 "Computers in the Seventies", Alexander "Sandy" Douglas. * Computer Networks, Volume 5, 1981, pp. 9–14. "Computers and Communications in the 1980s: Benefits and Problems", Alexander S. Douglas * Sandy Douglas, "Some Memories of EDSAC I: 1950–1952", ''IEEE Annals of the History of Computing'', vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 98–99, 208, October 1979.

References

External links

EWD1285

Edsger Dijkstra Edsger Wybe Dijkstra ( ; ; 11 May 1930 – 6 August 2002) was a Dutch computer scientist, programmer, software engineer, systems scientist, and science essayist. He received the 1972 Turing Award for fundamental contributions to developing progra ...

* Letter from Leeds

* Note for researchers: Do not confuse with another researcher from same time and area: http://pb.rcpsych.org/cgi/reprint/17/4/252.pdf * Video (Go to 4:40)
Video
* Obituary by

Frank Land Fred Frank Land (born Frank Landsberger; October 1928) is a German-born information systems researcher and was the first United Kingdom Professor of Information Systems. He is currently emeritus professor in the Department of Information Syst ...

and

T. William Olle T. William (Bill) Olle (born 1933 and died March 2019) was a British computer scientist and consultant and President of T. William Olle Associates, England. Biography Bill Olle was educated at Boston Grammar School (1943-1950). He received an M. ...

in Resurrection, the Bulletin of the Computer Conservation Society, issue 51, Summer 2010
A simulator of EDSAC Computer on the website of University of Warwick, England.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Sandy 1921 births 2010 deaths Academics from London Royal Corps of Signals officers Alumni of the University of Cambridge Members of the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge University of Illinois faculty Academics of the University of Leeds English computer scientists Fellows of the British Computer Society Presidents of the British Computer Society Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People from Kensington British Army personnel of World War II British Home Guard soldiers UCAS