Tony Sale

Tony Sale (1931 – 2011) was a British computer scientist, electrical engineer, and historian of computing. He is best known for leading the reconstruction of Colossus, the world's first electronic digital programmable computer, at Bletchley Park.

Sale served in the Royal Air Force as a radar mechanic before embarking on a career in computing. He worked for various companies, including Marconi, where he gained extensive experience in electronic engineering and computer design.

In the early 1990s, Sale spearheaded the Colossus Rebuild Project. Using original blueprints, surviving documents, and the memories of those who had worked on the original Colossus during World War II, Sale and a team of volunteers meticulously reconstructed the machine. The rebuilt Colossus was completed in 1996 and is now on display at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park.

Sale was a passionate advocate for preserving computer history and educating the public about the early days of computing. He lectured extensively and wrote numerous articles on the history of Colossus and other pioneering computers. His work was instrumental in raising awareness of the significance of Colossus and its role in breaking German codes during World War II. In addition to the Colossus rebuild, Sale was involved in other historical computing projects and remained active in the field until his death.