Audrey Bates (programmer)
Audrey Bates | |
|---|---|
| Born | Margery Audrey Bates 1928 |
| Died | 2014 (aged 85–86) |
| Alma mater | University of Manchester |
Margery Audrey Bates (Clayton Wallis) (1928–2014) was a British-American computer programmer who, in 1948, wrote the earliest program for lambda calculus calculations on the Manchester Mark I computer.[1]
Career
[edit | edit source]Bates graduated with a First in Mathematics from University of Manchester in the summer of 1949.[2] She was taken on as a research student by Alan Turing, and shared an office with him and Cicely Popplewell.[3] In 1950 Bates submitted an MSc thesis entitled "The mechanical solution of a problem in Church's Lambda calculus".[4] This thesis documents a successful attempt to carry out higher-order logical reasoning on the extremely primitive Manchester Mark I electronic computer.[3][2]
When the Manchester Mark I was commercialised by the local electronics firm Ferranti, Bates moved to work with them as a programmer. Whilst at Ferranti she composed several sections (some uncredited) of Vivian Bowdon's Faster Than Thought, a popular introduction to electronic computing.[2][5]
In 1952, Bates went to work on the FERUT, the Ferranti Mark I installed at the University of Toronto.[2] In 1955, Bates was pictured supervising the FERUT when it carried out the first automated remote access to a computer.[6][7]
In 1979, Bates was working as a 'futurist' at a US military think tank.[8]
Personal life
[edit | edit source]Bates married twice and had four children.[1] Her first husband, Ken Wallis, was a fellow Ferranti programmer;[9] her second husband was Leigh Clayton (1927–2024) and it was under the name of Clayton that Bates published her later work.[7]
References
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- ^ Lavington, Simon, Stardust: tales from the early days of computing. Talk to the Computer Conservation Society, Manchester, 19 February 2019.
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