ALAN TURING
“IT IS SAID THAT WITHOUT TURING’S WORK, THE WAR MAY HAVE LASTED MUCH LONGER, THUS COSTING MILLIONS MORE LIVES”
Known as the ‘father of modern computing’, Alan Turing was a noted genius from a young age. He studied mathematics at Cambridge
University where he designed the Turing machine, the mathematical model of the modern computer.
During World War II, Turing worked for the British government helping to crack the Enigma code, which the German military were using to encrypt their transmissions. While UK spies could intercept these messages, it was impossible to decode them as they had billions of possible combinations.
Turing and his fellow codebreakers built a machine called the Bombe, which could scan through all possible decryptions much faster than humans, enabling them to decipher the Germans’ messages and turn the tide of the war to beat the Nazis. It is said that without Turing’s work, the war may have lasted much longer, thus costing millions more lives.
After the war, Turing continued his pioneering work within computer science, including what would later become the building blocks of artificial intelligence.
Despite his legacy, Turing’s life is often looked back on with tragedy due to the persecution he faced for his sexuality by the very country he served. In 1952, just seven years after the end of World War II, he was arrested for indecency after admitting to a relationship with another man. He was punished by chemical castration via hormonal treatment intended to lower his libido, and his security clearance was revoked, thus ending his career. Two years later, on 8 June 1954, he was found dead at home from cyanide poisoning. His death was ruled a suicide.
In 2009, the UK government apologised for the way Turing was treated, and in 2013 he was granted a royal pardon. In 2017, the Turing Law was passed in his name, enabling men with historical gay sex convictions to apply for a formal pardon.