AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN RELATION TO COMPUTER CONSERVATION

March 2020

John Harper CEng, Hon. FBCS,CITP, MIET

For outstanding services in relation to computer conservation, in founding and leading the reconstruction of the “Bombe” machine, and bringing together the team which continues to maintain and demonstrate the machine.

Citation

Lifetime Achievement in Relation to Computer Conservation

The Bombe, designed by Alan Turing and Gordon Welchman, was a pre-computing electro-mechanical device used to automate the deciphering of Enigma-encrypted messages sent across enemy military networks during the Second World War. Its rebuilding, as a fully functional and accurate reconstruction, and its ongoing support and display to the public, both represent an outstanding contribution to the work and objectives of the Computer Conservation Society. The project has always been part of the BCS Computer Conservation Society's programme.

John Harper spent most of his career with ICL as an engineer working on a wide range of machines, starting in the early 1960s with the ICT 1500 and Powers Samas PCC and continuing with ICL 1900 and 2900 machines until he retired in the mid-1990s.

On his retirement John began the major task of rebuilding a British “Bombe”". He started in 1995 with some drawings which had been declassified, and gradually developed a full set of plans. He built up a team of fellow enthusiasts. In the early days he was able to obtain help from engineers who had worked at Bletchley Park or at the British Tabulating Machine Company, who supplied many of the original components. He raised many thousands of pounds in sponsorship, in cash and kind, to enable the work to be completed. The reconstructed Bombe was officially launched in 2007, being switched on by the Duke of Kent.

The National Museum of Computing now hosts the Bombe reconstruction in a dedicated galley in Block H, close to the rebuild of Colossus. There it continues to be on permanent public display.