Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander

Conel Hugh O'Donel Alexander (19 April 1909 – 15 February 1974), known as Hugh Alexander and C. H. O'D. Alexander, was an Irish-born British cryptanalyst, chess player, and chess writer. He worked on the German Enigma machine at Bletchley Park during the Second World War, and was later the head of the cryptanalysis division at GCHQ for 25 years. He was twice British chess champion and earned the title of International Master. Early life Hugh Alexander was born into an Anglo-Irish family on 19 April 1909 in Cork, Ireland, the eldest child of Conel William Long Alexander, an engineering professor at University College, Cork (UCC), and Hilda Barbara Bennett. His father died in 1920 (during the Irish War of Independence), and the family moved to Birmingham, England, where he attended King Edward's School. Alexander won a scholarship to study mathematics at King's College, Cambridge, in 1928, graduating with a first in 1931. He represented Cambridge in chess. From 1932, Alexander taught mathematics at Winchester, and married Enid Constance Crichton Neate (1900–1982) on 22 December 1934. Their elder son was Sir Michael O'Donel Bjarne Alexander (1936–2002), a diplomat. The Alexanders' other son was Patrick Macgillicuddy Alexander (20 March 1940 – 21 September 2005), a poet who settled in Australia in 1960. In 1938, Hugh Alexander left teaching and became head of research at the John Lewis Partnership. World War II began while Alexander was competing in the 8th Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, prompting him and the rest of the English team to abandon the competition and return to the UK.