Joan Clarke.

Key Facts & Summary

 Joan Elisabeth Lowther Murray was an English
cryptanalyst and numismatist best known for her work
as a code-breaker at Benchley Park during World War
II.
 Her role in the Enigma project that decrypted Nazi
Germany’s secret communications, earned her awards
and citations, such as the appointment as a Member
of the Order of the British Empire or MBE in 1946.
 Joan Clarke was awarded the distinguished
Philippa Fawcett Prize and in 1939-1940 the Helen
Gladstone Scholarship.
 Her controversial relationship with Alan Turing
sometimes overshadows her contributions to the war
effort.
 Her husband Murray, who had published works on
the Scottish coinage of the 16th and 17th century,
raised Clarke’s interest in numismatic history.
 She would go on and establish the sequence of
the complex series of gold unicorn and heavy groat
coins that were in circulation in Scotland during the
reign of James III and James IV. Her contributions
were recognized and she was awarded the Sanford
Saltus Gold Medal.

Prologue
Joan Clarke was born to William Kemp Lowther
Clarke, a Clergyman and Dorothy Elisabeth Clarke in
1917. She was the youngest child and was educated
at Dulwich High School and in 1936 matriculated at
Newnham College, Cambridge, to study Mathematics.
In 1937 and 1939 respectively, she achieved a First in
Part I and Part II of the Mathematical Tripos – a three-
year course leading to a BA degree and became a
Wrangler.