The Institute for Healthy Urban Living (IHUL) at the University of Westminster attended a landmark event at The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) at Bletchley Park. Held on August 15, the “Preserving the Legacy of Tommy Flowers: Uncovering Lost Histories of Mid-20th Century Computing Innovation” celebrated the life and legacy of Tommy Flowers, the pioneering engineer behind Colossus, the world’s first semi-programmable computer. The computer was instrumental during World War II, as it helped decipher encrypted German messages.

The event also recognised the support and achievements of Garry Hunter, a member of the IHUL Board, who has been instrumental in preserving Flowers’s story through creative and community-led projects. As the founder and chair of the Tommy Flowers Foundation, Garry successfully secured the funding for this heritage initiative, with TNMOC providing essential support for the application.

“This programme made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund aims to make Tommy Flowers as well known as Alan Turing, as their work was equally important, often collaborating, including travelling together to Bavaria in the summer of 1945 to visit secret communications facilities, at the one centre where the coded traffic had proved impossible to crack,” Hunter explains. “Now with the support of GCHQ, the foundation continues to preserve Tommy’s legacy, especially through encouraging innovation in young people by awarding bursaries for further advancement in applied arts, industrial design and sonic exploration, reflecting the inventions of The Post Research Team led by Tommy.”

In 2017, Garry founded the Tommy Flowers Community Pub on the Aberfeldy estate in Poplar, east London. More than a traditional venue, it became a new model of creative community engagement, offering workshops in film-making, animation, and collaborative technology projects with international universities.

At Bletchley Park, Garry’s continuing dedication was celebrated with the unveiling of the Tommy Flowers Mural in its new home at TNMOC, prominently displayed at the museum’s entrance. In attendance was Jonny Flowers, Tommy Flowers’ grandson, an engineer based in Glasgow. The museum also announced that the Colossus Memorial Window, an etched glass artwork, will join the collection following the pub’s closure. These installations now sit alongside the museum’s renowned reconstruction of Colossus itself.

Reflecting on the event, Professor Brendon Noble, Director of IHUL, said:

“I was delighted to represent the Institute for Healthy Urban Living at this inspirational event. Clear recognition of the pivotal role that Tommy Flowers had in not just the development of the first semi-programmable computer but also the end of the Second World War through key code-breaking capability is wonderful. This recognition speaks to our Institute’s support of social equity and to the place computing has had in changing the face of support for human health. Tommy was not of the prevailing ‘Officer-Class’ but made a contribution equal to or in excess of others that achieved global recognition.”

For IHUL, the celebration at Bletchley Park was not only about honouring past achievements but also about connecting them to present challenges and future opportunities. Flowers’s breakthroughs in computing paved the way for technologies that now underpin modern healthcare, from genomic research to hospital data systems. At the University of Westminster, IHUL continues this tradition by exploring how technological and cultural innovation can support healthier urban living and resilient communities.