Henryk Michał Zygalski MPhil, MSc, DSc was a member of the Polish Cipher Bureau. He worked with Marian Rejewski and Jerzy Różycki to break the Enigma codes and lay the foundation for the work of Alan Turing and others at Bletchley Park. Their wartime achievements were the result of mathematical brilliance and outstanding personal bravery. Henryk Zygalski was one of the first mathematics lecturers at the University of Surrey.
1908 Born on 15 July in Posen, then part of the German Empire, now Poznań.
1918 Poland gains independence from Germany.
1923 Arthur Scherbius launches prototype Enigma machine.
1926 Undergraduate at Poznań University. Poland starts intercepting German Enigma messages.
1928 Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski selected for code-breaking course: all were also fluent in German.
1931 Graduates with MPhil and all three work for Polish Cipher Bureau.
1932 Marian Rejewski reverse-engineers the Enigma machine, the first step towards decrypting Enigma messages.
1938 Invents Zygalski sheets to predict Enigma machine settings.
1939 July: Polish cryptanalysts meet with British and French allies at Pyry near Warsaw to share information and expertise.
1939 September: As the German army approaches Poland, the three cryptanalysts leave for France, via Romania and Italy.
1939 October: take up deciphering Enigma near Paris.
1940 Turing meets with Rejewski, Różycki and Zygalski in Paris. After France is invaded, the Poles fly to North Africa to get false identities.
1942 The Polish cryptanalysts return to Uzès, in Vichy France but Różycki is drowned en route. German army occupies southern France.
1943 Rejewski and Zygalski escape to Spain; they are robbed and imprisoned but released. They cross to Portugal to board a British naval vessel, MT Scottish, in Lisbon for Gibraltar. They fly to the UK and join the Polish Signals Battalion at Boxmoor, near Hemel Hempstead.
1945 World War II ends in Europe.
1947 Polish University College established in Knightsbridge and Putney. Zygalski is appointed to teach mathematics.
1949 Described by his tutor as “quite a good mathematician “. Becomes a British citizen.
1950 Zygalski is awarded London University MSc.
1951 Battersea Polytechnic takes over Putney Buildings.
1954 Death of Alan Turing.
1966 Battersea Polytechnic becomes the University of Surrey and moves to Guildford.
1968 Zygalski suffers a stroke and retires. His speech is impaired.
1973 Evidence begins to emerge in Poland of involvement in code-breaking of Rejewski, Różycki and Zygalski.
1974 Role of Bletchley Park becomes known for the first time.
1977 Awarded DSc Honoris Causa by the Polish University Abroad.
1978 Dies in Liss, Hampshire on 30 August and is cremated in Chichester.
2000 With Rejewski and Różycki, awarded Grand Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta
2002 Memorial to Rejewski, Różycki and Zygalski unveiled at Bletchley Park.
2007 Monument to Rejewski, Różycki and Zygalski unveiled in Poznań Castle.
2014 Rejewski, Różycki and Zygalski given Milestone Award by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
2018 Memorial stone to Zygalski unveiled in Chichester Crematorium by the Polish Ambassador and Dr Jeremy Russell (Zygalski’s nephew).
2026 Launch of Polish Navy signal intelligence ship ORP Henryk Zygalski.
2026 Zygalski’s lecture theatre named at the University of Surrey.