Joan Clarke, the woman who cracked Enigma with Alan Turing

BBC News
Nov 9, 2014
Joan Clarke, woman who cracked Enigma with Alan Turing
By Joe Miller, Technology Reporter

Joan Clarke's ingenious work as a codebreaker during WW2 saved countless lives, and her talents were formidable enough to command the respect of some of the greatest minds of the 20th Century, despite the sexism of the time.

But while Bletchley Park hero Alan Turing - who was punished by a post-war society where homosexuality was illegal and died at 41 - has been treated more kindly by history, the same cannot yet be said for Clarke.

The only woman to work in the nerve centre of the quest to crack German Enigma ciphers, Clarke rose to deputy head of Hut 8, and would be its longest-serving member...

...Her story has been immortalised by Keira Knightley in The Imitation Game, out in UK cinemas this week....

MORE at http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-29840653