Portrait by John Wonnacott RP CBE

Introduction

The death of this gifted mathematician has been reported as occurring on the 18th April 2018 at the age of 74.

The following "curricula vitae" were written by Bernard and are included as autobiographical data. In the interests of accuracy the content has not been edited.

Marconi Employment

The company was run very much like a family business when I first went to Baddow in 1963.  I was there until 1988 in the Mathematics Group with Jozef Skwirzynski; when I left, I became Professor of Mathematics at City University.  The company was becoming very regimented and almost intrusive towards the end of my sojourn, but I enjoyed my job enormously.

I worked with Eric Eastwood after he retired from being Director of Research of GEC, until he died.  Prior to that I had contact with very many people from all around the GEC empire.

When I was at Birmingham Uni, Eric Eastwood came and gave us a lecture on "Ring Angels" - a lecture which I still remember to this day, partly because the projector bulb exploded and made him lose his thread momentarily but also for its novel application of Stokes' Theorem to the propagation of the detected wave-fronts - before the cause was attributed to starlings! Later, when I was at Baddow, I got to know him quite well when I worked with him for a while surveying weaknesses in the UK AD system and its (partial) reliance on civilian infrastructure.

and another entry

My time at Baddow was amongst the most enjoyable of my career, and I often said that I would have worked there as a hobby if I could have found some other means of support! The problems that arose through engineering were generally particularly interesting, and it was so satisfying to make a contribution that actually made a difference. Another advantage of being a mathematician was that one could ask the "damn fool" question that no one else dared ask for fear of appearing stupid. We also tried to generalise the solutions we got by producing modelling languages and tools that we tried to encourage the engineers to use. Thus arose, automated Filter design tools, automated antenna design tools, SPADE (dynamic systems), MODSIM (modulated systems), FMECA (detailed reliability analysis) tools, lens design, queuing models of multiprocessor computer systems, ..... We always tried to make these as generally applicable as possible, so they could be widely used within the company, and outside too. For example, we sold SPADE to ESTEC and others. Anyway, I am just happy to have had the company of so many innovative engineers during my time at Baddow, which ended twenty-five years ago! Subsequently I received a lot of publicity when the portait of me won the top prize of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, beating those of the Pope and Princess Anne; hitherto I had had a quiet life.

Other Work

I am Frederick Bernard de Neumann (aka Bernhard von Neumann, the name I use for German publications) born 15 December 1943. Throughout my career I was a working mathematician, eventually becoming Professor of Mathematics and Research Professor of Software Engineering at The City University. I also was Chief Mathematician in the Ministry of Defence, and much of my work related to high technology and aerospace applications although mainly in the background in a research laboratory. I have been researching my family history for more than 50 years.

My books include:
Software Certification
Mathematical Structures for Software Engineering
Electromagnetic Modelling for Analysis and Synthesis Problems
The Royal Hospital School: Celebrating 300 Years

I also wrote the AGFHS booklets:
The Wendish Lands and Especially Old Mecklenburg
Interpreting Old German Manuscripts

Since I retired I have become deeply interested in Naval History, and am writing another book about the history of the Royal Hospital School, and a book about my late father's exploits during WW2.

My father was Captain Peter de Neumann, GM, (The Man From Timbuktu) - see the following paragraph.

BBC WW2 Archive

I am a mathematician by profession, and have spent more than thirty years researching my family genealogy and my late father's wartime career/adventures. During his lifetime he was widely known as "The Man from Timbuktu" as he had been a prisoner there during WW2. He also held a George Medal and a Lloyd's War Medal for Bravery at Sea. Three items he brought home from Timbuktu are on loan to the Imperial War Museum in London and on display in the Survival at Sea Exhibition. They are: a New Testament with a diary of the movements the prisoners made whilst captured; a Red Cross label from a parcel addressed to Peter de Neumann in Timbuktu; and the tumbler he made from the bottom of a Perrier Water bottle by half filling it with water, binding around it paraffin soaked twine at the water level and igniting it, making the glass crack at the water-line. The resulting vessel was then ground with stones to remove any sharp edges. Our (Neumann) family are middle European nobility who served in the retinues of Dukes, Grand Dukes, Kings, and Emperors. My ancestor Carl Friedrich Bernhard von Neumann came to London from Munich in 1833 and stayed.

I was educated at the Royal Hospital School, Holbrook, near Ipswich, and Birmingham University. I am the Royal Hospital School Archivist. During my career I worked for Marconi Research, GEC Research, NASA, ESA, NATO, RTZ, MOD (RN, Army and RAF), RARDE, RSRE, ASWE, AUWE, RAE, The City University, and as a visiting lecturer at several universities. I am a member of the Court of Essex University. I also served on the Council of the Institute of Mathematics and Its Applications.

Some of my mathematical work helped to make it possible to receive imagery from deep space missions, like from the Viking Landers 1 & 2 that transmitted the first colour pictures back from the surface of Mars. This same work also helped improve FM radio receivers and facilitated their miniaturization. I also invented and patented a self-configuring multi-processor computer, that included ideas used for the technology used in contactless smart cards, RF identification tagging chips, subcutaneous micro-electronic chips (eg pet identification) and industrial control and social monitoring, etc. Adaptations of it also has application in certain kinds of Information Warfare. In my published work (books and papers) I have used both the "de" and "von" forms of my name depending on the country in which they first appeared.

Many people mistakenly think that I was at Bletchley Park during the war - but I wasn't born until the end of 1943! However I did know quite a few of the mathematicians/engineerrs involved: Max Newman, Jack Good, Donald Michie, Tommy Flowers, "Doc" Coombs, Hugh Skillen, ....

I solved some of the "mysteries" often cited in books about the so-called "Bermuda Triangle". I also discovered that during WW1 Karl Dönitz nearly lost his life when the U-boat (U-39), aboard which he was the First Watch Officer, was rammed and rolled over by SS RYTON on 5 August 1917. RYTON sank quickly as she was carrying iron ore, but Dönitz's boat, badly damaged, limped back to base at Cattaro for repairs. How differently WW2 may have evolved had Dönitz not been available to head the German Navy!

A portrait of me entitled "Professor Bernard de Neumann - The Mathematician" by John Wonnacott, CBE, won the 2005 Ondaatje Prize of the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4486329.stm

(This paragraph is taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/user/04/u2050304.shtml which additionally includes links to contributions by Bernard to stories in the BBC WW2 Archive)