Derek Roy Taunt (16 November 1917^{(Note 1)} – 15 July 2004) was a British

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History O ...

who worked as a

codebreaker Cryptanalysis (from the Greek ''kryptós'', "hidden", and ''analýein'', "to analyze") refers to the process of analyzing information systems in order to understand hidden aspects of the systems. Cryptanalysis is used to breach cryptographic sec ...

during World War II at

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire) that became the principal centre of Allied code-breaking during the Second World War. The mansion was constructed during the years following 1 ...

. Taunt attended Enfield Grammar, then the City of London School. He studied mathematics at Jesus College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge becam ...

between 1936 and 1939.Derek Taunt, ''Hut 6 From the Inside'', pp. 77-93 in ''Action this Day'', edited by Ralph Erskine and Michael Smith, 2001, He was accepted as a research student by

G. H. Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of pop ...

, but this was postponed by the outbreak of World War II. Taunt registered with the Joint Recruiting Board, and was initially allocated to work on

ballistics Ballistics is the field of mechanics concerned with the launching, flight behaviour and impact effects of projectiles, especially ranged weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets or the like; the science or art of designing and a ...

at Kemnal Manor in

Chislehurst Chislehurst () is a suburban district of south-east London, England, in the London Borough of Bromley. It lies east of Bromley, south-west of Sidcup and north-west of Orpington, south-east of Charing Cross. Before the creation of Great ...

, preparing range tables for new weapons. Finding that the task required only trivial mathematics ("more like advanced arithmetic than real mathematics"), he sought more appropriate work. In August 1941 he was moved to Bletchley Park and assigned to

Hut 6 Hut 6 was a wartime section of the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, Britain, tasked with the solution of German Army and Air Force Enigma machine cyphers. Hut 8, by contrast, attacked Naval Enigma. ...

, the section in charge of decrypting German Army and Air Force

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

signals. While there, he was best man at the marriage of co-workers Bob Roseveare and Ione Jay. After his wartime work, he returned to Cambridge, and worked on

group theory In abstract algebra, group theory studies the algebraic structures known as groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as rings, fields, and vector spaces, can all be seen as ...

. He was a research student (1945), wrote a doctoral dissertation under

Philip Hall Philip Hall FRS (11 April 1904 – 30 December 1982), was an English mathematician. His major work was on group theory, notably on finite groups and solvable groups. Biography He was educated first at Christ's Hospital, where he won the Thom ...

, won a

Smith's Prize The Smith's Prize was the name of each of two prizes awarded annually to two research students in mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1769. Following the reorganization in 1998, they are now awarded under the ...

in 1949, and was a Lecturer from 1949 with the honorific title of 'Cayley Lecturer' from 1965 until retirement in 1982. As a Fellow of Jesus College he was at various times a director of studies, tutor, bursar, and from 1979 to 1982 was President. In 1982 he became Emeritus Fellow, "with most of the privileges and none of the duties of a Fellow." His doctoral students include Roger Carter. On 18 December 1952 Taunt was elected a member of the

London Mathematical Society The London Mathematical Society (LMS) is one of the United Kingdom's learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh Mathematical ...

.Deaths: DEREK TAUNT, LMS Newsletter, London Mathematical Society
He was married to the English artist Angela Verren with who he had three children.

Notes

1. The obituary published in the Telegraph gives his birth date as the 16th, while that in the 2004 Jesus College Annual Report incorrectly records it as the 17th.Jesus College Annual Report for 2004
, p. 83-85 GRO death index gives it as the 16th. 2. Derek Taunt gives an account of his war work in:

External links

*

in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fo ...

, August 13, 2004.

References

1917 births 2004 deaths Bletchley Park people British cryptographers Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge People educated at the City of London School 20th-century British mathematicians 21st-century British mathematicians People educated at Enfield Grammar School People from London {{UK-mathematician-stub