A computer scientist who helped the Queen send her first email – in 1976 – has died aged 86. Peter Kirstein, dubbed “the European father of the internet”, died from a brain tumour last month. He played a vital role in the creation of Internet Protocol, which lets computer networks share information.
Prof Kirstein set up the Queen’s first official email account, HME2, and guided her through the process of sending her first message. Signed “Elizabeth R”, it announced the imminent arrival of a programming language developed within the Ministry of Defence. A Jewish refugee who fled from Germany to London in the 1930s, Prof Kirstein became a CBE in 2003.
