How a Surrey teacher helped break the Enigma code

One of the three mathematicians who helped break the German military Enigma cipher before World War Two is being honoured in Surrey.

Henryk Zygalski, Marian Rejewski and Jerzy Różycki, all from Poland, worked out how to read messages sent on Enigma in the 1930s.

Just weeks before Hitler invaded Poland, the trio shared all they knew with British and French intelligence, paving the way for Alan Turing's Bombe machine at Bletchley Park.

Zygalski arrived in England in 1943 and chose to remain here after the war. He taught maths at an early iteration of the University of Surrey - where a plaque commemorating his efforts has been unveiled.

The Enigma machine was used by the German forces to send coded messages.

Just a year before the invasion, the mathematician had devised the Zygalski sheets - perforated cards that, when lit, showed how Enigma machines had been built.

Zygalski escaped to France in 1939, where he continued to work on Enigma. He later crossed into Spain and was then taken to Portugal, before boarding a British naval ship in 1943.

Unwilling to return to a Poland under Soviet control, he stayed in Britain and taught at the Polish University College in London.

The college was taken over by Battersea Polytechnic in 1951, which would later move to Guildford and become the University of Surrey.

Zygalski never told his colleagues of his achievements.

Prof Stephen Jarvis, president and vice-chancellor at the university, said: "There is something rather wonderful about knowing that one of the people who helped change the course of the Second World War subsequently spent his days teaching mathematics to students at Surrey, with little indication of the extraordinary life he had led."

The commemorative plaque was unveiled on Poland's national independence day - 11 November.

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