Tommy Flowers Born December 22, 1905 - died October 28, 1998. Creator of the world's first digital computer. Employed by the British Post Office, he worked in the 1930s on converting England's mechanical telephone switching system to an electronic system, but without much success. During WWII he was recruited by Bletchley Park where he applied his experience in telephone systems switching to build 'Colossus', the first electronic, rather than mechanical, code breaker.