Kenneth Le Couteur
| Kenneth Le Couteur | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
16 September 1920 Saint Helier, Jersey |
| Died | 18 April 2011 (aged 90) Canberra, Australian Capital Territory |
| Nationality | British |
| Fields | physics |
| Institutions |
University of Liverpool Australian National University |
| Alma mater |
University of Cambridge University of Manchester |
| Thesis | Meson Theory (1949) |
| Doctoral advisor | Maurice Pryce, Nicholas Kemmer, Léon Rosenfeld |
| Notable awards | Centenary Medal |
Kenneth James Le Couteur (16 September 1920 – 18 April 2011) was a British physicist who was the foundation Professor of Theoretical Physics at the Australian National University in Canberra. During World War II he worked at Bletchley Park as a codebreaker.
Kenneth James Le Couteur was born in Saint Helier on the island of Jersey, the son of Philippe Le Couteur, the owner of a carpentry business, and his wife Eva née Gartrell. He was educated at Victoria College Preparatory School and Victoria College on Jersey, where he was inspired to become a mathematician by his maths teacher, who had been a wrangler at the University of Cambridge in England. He received a scholarship to study at St John's College, Cambridge, which he entered in 1938. There he studied mathematics, tutored by Ebenezer Cunningham, who had been the senior wrangler in 1902, and rowed for the college.
The German occupation of the Channel Islands in 1940 left him stranded in England, cut off from his family. He was awarded his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1941, winning the Mayhew Prize for the student showing the greatest distinction in applied mathematics. He was recruited by the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park as a cryptanalyst. Le Couteur worked on the Enigma machines, and then the Lorenz cipher, codenamed Tunny by the British. The codebreaking process was partly automated, using Robinson machines and the Colossus computers.
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