Alexander Aitken

Alexander Aitken was one of New Zealand’s most distinguished mathematicians. Born in Dunedin to parents of Scottish descent he served in World War I and wrote a book about his experiences ‘From Gallipoli to the Somme’ (1963 – republished in 2020). He was wounded at the Somme. After the war he completed his MA at Otago University before doing a PhD at Edinburgh University where he remained teaching for the rest of his life, becoming Professor of Mathematics in 1946. He served at Bletchley Park working on the ENIGMA code during World War II.

He married Mary Betts in 1920, the first woman to be appointed as a lecturer at Otago University where she taught biology.

Alexander was a talented musician and the story of a violin that accompanied him through the trenches in the war has become part of the Aitken legend and is on display at his old school Otago Boys High School. He composed several pieces of music as a young man, of which this song is an example, although its exact date is uncertain.