Well, Lovelace disputedly created the first program for the Babbage machine under Babbage's guidance. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace#Controversy_over_...). Although, more difficult perhaps than morse code I wouldnt consider the first person to send morse code a "Giant" by merit of that act alone... And Gates well, thats too long of a story, but for me it boils down to the fact that I dont think he created outstanding products and he didnt contribute to theoretical CS or EE in any direct way. About the only case you can make for him is as an entrepreneur or visionary, for which I personally think there are other candidates that have better arguments for that position.
Babbage created the machine and he would not know how to run it? He would not know how to program it? The absurdity of this is astounding. Babbage was the first programmer.
There is a google talk about Babbage's machines and the speaker also talked about Ada at the 36 min mark -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K5p_tBcrd0&feature=youtu.be...