Professor Tom Kilburn (1921–2001)

Professor Tom Kilburn (1921–2001)

British engineer and co-inventor of the first working computer memory, Tom Kilburn was also responsible for designing and building the first stored-programme computer. His advances in computer technology greatly impacted the development of computers and computer programming.

Born in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, on 11 August 1921, Tom Kilburn graduated from the University of Cambridge in 1942, with a degree in mathematics. After working for Frederic Williams’s wartime radio group at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), in 1946, Kilburn left for the University of Manchester, where he and Williams were recruited to develop the first electronic storage system for electronic computers. Together they would design and create a storage device called the ‘Williams Tube’, in 1947–48. The Williams Tube would remain one of two ways of storing computer data, until another system was created in the 1950s.

In 1956, Kilburn began one of his most notable projects: initially named MUSE, but later renamed Atlas. Together with other engineers and researchers, Kilburn developed the first multi-programming computer system. By creating an operating system and employing a method now-known as virtual memory, Kilburn and his team were able to run multiple computer programmes simultaneously.

In 1960, Kilburn was made professor at the University of Manchester. In 1964, he created the first department of computer science in the United Kingdom. One year later, in 1965, he was elected fellow of the Royal Society. He retired in 1981.

A blue plaque celebrating Kilburn’s life and achievements was erected at Carlton Cresent, in Urmston, in 2002.

Trafford Local Studies Centre