OLD AZURIANS

Professor Stanley Gill

Digital computer pioneer and champion of the internet.

 

Stanley Gill was born in Worthing on 26 March 1926. He studied at Worthing High School for Boys from 1935 to 1943 at which point he was awarded a place at St John’s College Cambridge to read Mathematics and Natural Sciences. He was one of the earliest of the many pupils of the school to go up to St John’s. After graduating BA in 1945 he spent some time at the National Physical Laboratory working on an early version of a digital computer named ACE (Automatic Computing Engine). In 1949 Stanley returned to Cambridge as a research student in a team, led by Maurice Wilkes, developing another computer (EDSAC) on which Britain’s first commercial computer (LEO) used by J Lyons & Co., was eventually based.

 

Gill was awarded his PhD in 1952 and was elected a Research Fellow of St John’s. During the period up to 1955 he was also made a Visiting Professor at Illinois University and Lecturer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA. He established himself in the world of mathematics and computing by helping to develop a method of solving differential equations, and procedures for identifying errors in programs (now known as de-bugging). He has also been credited, together with Wilkes and a fellow research student Wheeler, with the invention of subroutines in computer programs - software tools designed to carry out specific tasks and which may be called upon by the main program whenever required. The three of them also published a book that was to become regarded as a foundation stone of the software industry.

 

At this point he changed direction, possibly because academic posts were thin on the ground at the time, but more likely because he was, as one of his friends described him, a “mover and shaker”. He entered the commercial world, taking a position with the British company Ferranti which, in conjunction with Plessey and the University of Manchester, had designed and built Atlas, then the world’s fastest computer, using transistors instead of thermionic valves and incorporating a number of innovative features. Gill had not entirely given up academia however as he also held a part-time post as Professor of Automatic Data Processing at Manchester University from 1963 to 1964.

 

During the 1960s Gill added other strings to his bow. Besides holding the chair of Computing Science at Imperial College, London, he sat on the General Assembly of the International Federation for Information Processing, was advisor on computers to the Minister for Technology, was President of the British Computer Society, and sat on the Board of several companies.

 

Stanley Gill died at the tragically early age of 49 in April 1975. There are several more personal facets that emerge from the tributes to him written after his death. He was passionate about the importance of computing to this country and the need for a communications network capable of carrying the vast amount of computer information traffic that was to come. He successfully bridged the gap between the academic and business worlds and was blessed with the ability to make technical issues clear to the layman. Throughout his distinguished career, he maintained friendly relationships with his colleagues and, through his delightful nature, commanded their respect and affection.