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Sandy Douglas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sandy Douglas
CBE
Born
Alexander Shafto Douglas

(1921-05-21)21 May 1921
London, England
Died29 April 2010(2010-04-29) (aged 88)[1]
London, England[1]
CitizenshipUnited Kingdom
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
Known forOXO
Scientific career
FieldsComputer science
InstitutionsUniversity of Leeds
ThesisSome Computations in Theoretical Physics (1954)

Alexander Shafto "Sandy" Douglas (May 21, 1921 – April 29, 2010) was a British programmer and computer science professor. He is credited with creating in 1952 the first graphical computer game, OXO,[2] a version of noughts and crosses[3] on the EDSAC[4] computer at University of Cambridge.

Early life and education

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Douglas was born on May 21, 1921 in London. At age eight, his family moved to Cromwell Road, near what would become the London Air Terminal.

During the Blitz, in 1940–1941, Douglas's Home Guard unit, "C" Company of the Chelsea and Kensington Battalion of the KRRC, was headquartered in the basement of the Royal School of Mines on the other side of Exhibition Road across from the museums. He appeared to commission into the Corps of Royal Engineers on March 7, 1943, as a Second Lieutenant,[5] but this was later corrected to show that he actually commissioned into the Royal Corps of Signals.[6]

Douglas attended the University of Cambridge starting in 1950. In 1952, while working toward earning his PhD, he wrote a thesis that focused on human-computer interactions and he needed an example to prove his theories. At that time, Cambridge was home to the second stored-program computer, the EDSAC or Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (the first being Manchester University's "Baby," which ran its inaugural program on June 21, 1948). This gave Douglas the opportunity to prove his findings by programming the code for a simple game, where a player competed against the computer in OXO.

Career

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1953–1957: Trinity College

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In 1953, Douglas spent the year at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne at its computation laboratory as Assistant Professor. He was also elected as a Prize Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. In 1955, he became Junior Bursar of Trinity College.[7]

1957–1960: University of Leeds

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In 1957, the University of Leeds installed a FERranti Pegasus[8] computer in the Eldon Chapel on Woodhouse Lane. Douglas set up the Computer Laboratory of the University of Leeds and it was there that he first became interested in the application of computers to business problems.

The Pegasus holds an especial place in my affection, it being the machine I installed as the central University machine in a disused chapel in Leeds in 1957 – it was known as Lucifer, for Leeds University Computing Installation (FERranti). Our au pair girl from Spain made a beautiful little devilish doll which decorated the machine – it has probably disappeared by now.[9]

In June 1960, the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals set up a working party to explore the creation of a national system for handling university admissions. Douglas was appointed a member to provide advice on using computers for this system. He had previously worked at Leeds with Ronald Kay who was to become UCCA's General Secretary, on "an early and primitive but successful attempt to introduce computer methods into student registration procedures."[10]

1960–1968: C-E-I-R Holdings Ltd

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In 1960, Douglas entered the commercial field as Technical Director of the UK subsidiary of C-E-I-R, now Scientific Control Systems (known as Scicon).[11]

Leasco

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In 1968, Douglas left C-E-I-R to initiate the European software interests of Leasco Systems and Research Ltd as chairman.[12]

Personal life

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Douglas was married to Andrey (Audrey) Mary Brasnett Parker. They had two children together.[13]

Douglas died on April 29, 2010 from pneumonia.[14]

Publications

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Douglas published more than 60 papers in fields such as atomic physics, crystallography, mathematics, and computer science.

  • A. S. Douglas. "Living with Computers," in Special Edition: Computers in the Seventies, Science Journal, Vol 6, No. 10, pp. 35-41.
  • Alexander Shafto Douglas. "Computers and Society: An Inaugural Lecture," delivered on April 27, 1972. London School of Economics, 1973. ISBN 978-0-85328-019-4.
  • Sandy Douglas. "Some Memories of EDSAC I: 1950–1952." IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp, 98–99, 208, October 1979. doi:10.1109/MAHC.1979.10018
  • Alexander S. Douglas. "Computers and Communications in the 1980s: Benefits and Problems." Computer Networks, Vol. 5, Issue 1, pp. 9–14, February 1981.

References

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  1. 1 2 "Alexander (Sandy) Shafto Douglas 1921-2010". The Computer Journal. 54 (2): 187–188. 2010. doi:10.1093/comjnl/bxq054.
  2. ↑ "OXO (video game)", Wikipedia, 13 May 2026, retrieved 2 July 2026
  3. ↑ "Pong-Story : A.S.Douglas' 1952 Noughts and Crosses game". www.pong-story.com. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  4. ↑ "EDSAC | First Computer, Turing, Cambridge | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  5. ↑ "No. 36112". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 July 1943. p. 3432.
  6. ↑ "No. 36177". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 September 1943. p. 4173.
  7. ↑ "Dr Rod Pullen reflects on 10 years as Trinity's Junior Bursar". 31 January 2017.
  8. ↑ "Ferranti's Pegasus - a mass-produced 1950s workhorse". Retro Computing. 18 April 2025. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  9. ↑ "Alexander "Sandy" Shafto Douglas CBE, 1921 -l 2010". www.douglashistory.co.uk. Retrieved 27 June 2026.
  10. ↑ Kay, Ronald (June 1985). UCCA: Its Origins And Development 1950–1985. UCCA. ISBN 0-900951-56-7.
  11. ↑ "Scientific Control Systems - Graces Guide". www.gracesguide.co.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  12. ↑ Smith, William D. (9 June 1968). "A Leaser of Computers Thrives on Innovations". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  13. ↑ "Alexander "Sandy" Shafto Douglas CBE, 1921 -l 2010". www.douglashistory.co.uk. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
  14. ↑ CDC (25 February 2026). "About Pneumonia". Pneumonia. Retrieved 2 July 2026.
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