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Joan Clarke
Joan Elisabeth Lowther Murray, MBE (née Clarke; 24 June 1917 – 4 September 1996) was an English cryptanalyst and numismatist who worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Although she did not personally seek the spotlight, her role in the Enigma project that decrypted the German secret communications earned her awards and citations, such as appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), in 1946.
Joan Elisabeth Lowther Clarke was born on 24 June 1917 in West Norwood, London, England. She was the youngest child of Dorothy (née Fulford) and the Revd. William Kemp Lowther Clarke. She had three brothers and one sister.
Clarke attended Dulwich High School for Girls in south London and won a scholarship in 1936, to attend Newnham College, Cambridge. Her work in an undergraduate geometry class at Cambridge drew the attention of mathematician Gordon Welchman, who became her academic supervisor.
Clarke gained a double first degree in mathematics and was a Wrangler. She won the Philippa Fawcett prize and was awarded the Helen Gladstone scholarship for a further year of study. She was denied a full degree, as until 1948 Cambridge awarded these only to men.
Just before the outbreak of World War II, Welchman and three other top mathematicians were recruited to the Government Code and Cypher School, which aimed to break the German Enigma Code. The Germans used the Enigma machine to encrypt their messages, which they believed to be unbreakable.
In June 1940, Welchman recruited Clarke to the agency with the offer of 'interesting work'. She arrived at Bletchley Park on 17 June 1940 and was initially placed in an all-women group, referred to as "The Girls", who mainly did routine clerical work. Clarke said she knew of only one other female cryptologist working at Bletchley Park.
Clarke ended up working at Bletchley Park in the section known as Hut 8 with Alan Turing, whom she knew slightly through her older brother Michael. She quickly became the only female practitioner of Banburismus, a cryptanalytic process developed by Alan Turing which reduced the need for bombes: electromechanical devices as used by British cryptologists Welchman and Turing to decipher German encrypted messages during World War II. Clarke's first work promotion was to Linguist Grade which was designed to earn her extra money despite the fact that she did not speak another language. This promotion was a recognition of her workload and contributions to the team.
In 1941, trawlers were captured as well as their cipher equipment and codes. Before this information was obtained, wolf packs had sunk 282,000 tons of shipping a month from March to June 1941. By November, Clarke and her team were able to reduce this number to 62,000 tons. Hugh Alexander, head of Hut 8 from 1943 to 1944, described her as "one of the best Banburists in the section".[page needed] Alexander himself was regarded as the best of the Banburists. He and I. J. Good considered the process more an intellectual game than a job. It was "not easy enough to be trivial, but not difficult enough to cause a nervous breakdown".
Joan Clarke
Joan Elisabeth Lowther Murray, MBE (née Clarke; 24 June 1917 – 4 September 1996) was an English cryptanalyst and numismatist who worked as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. Although she did not personally seek the spotlight, her role in the Enigma project that decrypted the German secret communications earned her awards and citations, such as appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE), in 1946.
Joan Elisabeth Lowther Clarke was born on 24 June 1917 in West Norwood, London, England. She was the youngest child of Dorothy (née Fulford) and the Revd. William Kemp Lowther Clarke. She had three brothers and one sister.
Clarke attended Dulwich High School for Girls in south London and won a scholarship in 1936, to attend Newnham College, Cambridge. Her work in an undergraduate geometry class at Cambridge drew the attention of mathematician Gordon Welchman, who became her academic supervisor.
Clarke gained a double first degree in mathematics and was a Wrangler. She won the Philippa Fawcett prize and was awarded the Helen Gladstone scholarship for a further year of study. She was denied a full degree, as until 1948 Cambridge awarded these only to men.
Just before the outbreak of World War II, Welchman and three other top mathematicians were recruited to the Government Code and Cypher School, which aimed to break the German Enigma Code. The Germans used the Enigma machine to encrypt their messages, which they believed to be unbreakable.
In June 1940, Welchman recruited Clarke to the agency with the offer of 'interesting work'. She arrived at Bletchley Park on 17 June 1940 and was initially placed in an all-women group, referred to as "The Girls", who mainly did routine clerical work. Clarke said she knew of only one other female cryptologist working at Bletchley Park.
Clarke ended up working at Bletchley Park in the section known as Hut 8 with Alan Turing, whom she knew slightly through her older brother Michael. She quickly became the only female practitioner of Banburismus, a cryptanalytic process developed by Alan Turing which reduced the need for bombes: electromechanical devices as used by British cryptologists Welchman and Turing to decipher German encrypted messages during World War II. Clarke's first work promotion was to Linguist Grade which was designed to earn her extra money despite the fact that she did not speak another language. This promotion was a recognition of her workload and contributions to the team.
In 1941, trawlers were captured as well as their cipher equipment and codes. Before this information was obtained, wolf packs had sunk 282,000 tons of shipping a month from March to June 1941. By November, Clarke and her team were able to reduce this number to 62,000 tons. Hugh Alexander, head of Hut 8 from 1943 to 1944, described her as "one of the best Banburists in the section".[page needed] Alexander himself was regarded as the best of the Banburists. He and I. J. Good considered the process more an intellectual game than a job. It was "not easy enough to be trivial, but not difficult enough to cause a nervous breakdown".