As interesting as his name is long - Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (Part 1)
Submitted by
on Mon, 02/09/2009 at 1:48pm.
I have not posted in my blog in quite a while, mostly because I have been actively posting in my chess group (The Chess History Group) and enjoying my friends over in COT OTB. I came across this very interesting Englishman and thought I would share with the rest of chess.com
Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander, CMG, CBE (19 April 1909 – 15 February 1974) was a Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer. He worked on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during World War II, and was later the head of the cryptanalysis division at GCHQ for over 20 years. In chess, he was twice British chess champion and earned the title of International Master. He was usually referred to as C. H. O'D. Alexander in print andHugh in person.
Hugh Alexander was born on 19 April 1909 in Cork, Ireland, the eldest child of Conel William Long Alexander, anengineering professor at University College, Cork, and Hilda Barbara Bennett. His father died in 1920, and the family moved to Birmingham in England where he attended King Edward's School. He won a scholarship to studymathematics at King's College, Cambridge in 1928, graduating with a first in 1931.
From 1932, he taught mathematics in Winchester, and married Enid Constance Crichton Neate (1900-1982) on 22 December 1934. Their eldest son was Michael O'Donel Bjarne Alexander (1936-2002), a diplomat. In 1938 he left teaching and became head of research at the John Lewis Partnership.
Source
More to come - check back later
Thanks,
Q