Derek Roy Taunt (16 November 1917(Note 1) – 15 July 2004) was a British mathematician who worked as a codebreaker during World War II at Bletchley Park.
[2] He was accepted as a research student by G. H. Hardy, but this was postponed by the outbreak of World War II.
Taunt registered with the Joint Recruiting Board, and was initially allocated to work on ballistics at Kemnal Manor in Chislehurst, preparing range tables for new weapons.
In August 1941 he was moved to Bletchley Park and assigned to Hut 6, the section in charge of decrypting German Army and Air Force Enigma signals.
The obituary published in the Telegraph gives his birth date as the 16th,[1] while that in the 2004 Jesus College Annual Report incorrectly records it as the 17th.