Rolf Noskwith

Rolf Noskwith (19 June 1919 – 3 January 2017) was a British businessman who during the Second World War worked under Alan Turing as a cryptographer at the Bletchley Park British military base.

Early life and education Noskwith's parents, Chaim (Charles) and Malka (née Ginsberg), were Eastern European-born Jews who set up a clothing manufacturing company in Germany. Seeing that the political and economic conditions were worsening, they sold their business and emigrated to England in 1932, along with their children. that would become the basis of Noskwith's post-war life. Noskwith was educated at Nottingham High School and Trinity College, Cambridge.

Service in Second World War Initially, he was not accepted for military service, but after his third attempt, he was accepted to work as a translator and cryptographer at the Bletchley Park facility. He is thought to have been the last surviving cryptographer of Bletchley Park at the time of his death. Shortly after his death, The Jewish Chronicle published a tribute to Noskwith and other Jewish codebreakers by the director of GCHQ Robert Hannigan, who described their contribution as "out of all proportion to the size of the Jewish community in Britain at the time". Noting the contribution of Jewish staff at Bletchley to the foundation of Israel after World War II he referred to Noskwith's offer of his services in 1947 to Walter Eytan, who responded "of codebreakers we have plenty!".

Following Noskwith's death, a two-page mathematical manuscript handwritten by Alan Turing was found among his papers and sold at Bonhams auction house in London for £44,000 to King's College, Cambridge, Turing's former college.