Ada Lovelace was born on the 10th December 1815 as the only child of the infamous poet Lord Byron and his wife Anne Isabella Byron (formerly Milbanke, Lady Wentworth). Byron separated from his wife a month after Ada was born and left England forever four months later, dying of disease in the Greek War of Independence when Ada was eight years old. Ada’s mother loathed Byron and, determined her daughter didn’t inherit her father’s madness, sought to develop in Ada an interest in mathematics and logic by employing the best tutors she could find for the young girl including Mary Somerville and Augustus De Morgan.
Naturally bright and inquisitive the young Ada became interested in science, nature and technology but she was often ill and spent large parts of her childhood confined to bed. During this period she became fascinated in flight, designing a mechanical bird with flapping wings and determined to write a book called Flyology with the intention of creating a steam powered mechanism enabling her to fly.