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, mathematical structure, structure, space, Mathematica ...

who worked as a codebreaker during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Bletchley Park Bletchley Park is an English country house and Bletchley Park estate, estate in Bletchley, Milton Keynes (Buckinghamshire), that became the principal centre of Allies of World War II, Allied World War II cryptography, code-breaking during the S ...

. Taunt attended Enfield Grammar, then the

City of London School The City of London School, also known as CLS and City, is a Private schools in the United Kingdom, private day school for Single-sex education, boys in the City of London, England, on the banks of the River Thames next to the Millennium Bridge, ...

. He studied mathematics at Jesus College,

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

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 weapon munitions such as bullets, unguided bombs, rockets and the like; the science or art of designing and acceler ...

at Kemnal Manor in Chislehurst, 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, the section in charge of decrypting German Army and Air Force Enigma 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 group (mathematics), groups. The concept of a group is central to abstract algebra: other well-known algebraic structures, such as ring (mathematics), rings, field ( ...

. He was a research student (1945), wrote a doctoral dissertation under Philip Hall, won a Smith's Prize 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 society, learned societies for mathematics (the others being the Royal Statistical Society (RSS), the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA), the Edinburgh ...

.Deaths: DEREK TAUNT, LMS Newsletter, London Mathematical Society
He was married to the English artist

Angela Verren Angela Verren ( Chick; 1930-2023), later Angela Verren–Taunt, was a British artist. Biography Verren was born in Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London B ...

with whom 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 Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

, 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 Mathematicians from London {{UK-mathematician-stub