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Britain still owes Alan Turing a debt
Alan Turing was a remarkable British hero who helped create the modern world. Now known as the father of computer science, his inventions contributed greatly to the groundwork for the modern computer.
Despite his contributions, Turing did not receive the recognition and plaudits that he deserved while alive. Putting him on the £10 note is a small but important step towards finally redressing that.
Born on June 23rd, 1912, in Maida Vale, Alan Turing grew up in Hastings. He displayed great individuality from a young age. At 14 he went to Sherborne School in Dorset. On discovering that there would be a general strike on his first day he took it upon himself to cycle the 60 or so miles to school on his own.
Turing subsequently read mathematics at Cambridge, later assisting in the development of the innovative Manchester computers.
On 4 September 1939 the day after Britain declared war on Germany, Turing reported to Bletchley Park, the wartime station of the Government Code and Cypher School and forerunner of GCHQ. At Bletchley, Turing led a team whose ingenuity and intellect were turned to the task of breaking German ciphers. One of Turing’s main contributions whilst there was to invent the Bombe, an electromechanical machine used to find the daily settings of the Enigma machine. A fully functional rebuild of the Bombe can be found today at Bletchley Park, along with the excellent Turing exhibition, I encourage you to visit.
Alan Turing was an absolutely vital part of the British war effort and one of the most important people of the 20th century. It is without question that his efforts helped shorten the war significantly, saving the lives of millions of people.
And yet, he was treated badly. A burglary at his home led Turing to admit to police that he was a practicing homosexual, at a time when it was illegal in Britain. This led to his arrest and conviction in 1952 for ‘gross indecency’. Turing was subsequently forced to choose between imprisonment and chemical castration. He chose chemical castration. As a result of his conviction he lost security clearance and was not allowed to continue his work.
On 8 June 1954 Turing was found dead and an inquest revealed he had poisoned himself with cyanide.
The US-based Association of Computing Machinery has given The Turing Award annually since 1966. It is the computing world’s highest honour for technical contribution to the computing community and considered equivalent to the Nobel prize. I had the great pleasure of taking the first female Turing Award winner Professor Fran Allen to Bletchley Park a few years ago. She loved it.
One hundred years on from Turing’s birth, the Bank of England has a unique opportunity to honour a genius, a hero and a pioneer. Whilst it is impossible to reverse the decisions of those who treated Turing so badly all those years ago, we can at least demonstrate that Britain has changed. We now celebrate our outstanding individuals regardless of ethnicity, sexuality, or gender.
In 2012 let’s make sure that Turing’s achievements are celebrated, in this, his centenary year. Let’s put Alan Turing, a British hero, on the £10 note.
Dr Sue Black is an award-winning computer scientist at UCL and founder of the <goto> foundation, which promotes technology and computing.