Pride Alliance- The Story of Alan Turing

To remind everyone of why it is so important to have an accepting space like the Pride Alliance and as it is LGBTQ+ history month in the UK, we thought we would draw attention to an important historical LGBTQ+ figure: Alan Turing.

Born in London in 1912, he grew up in Maida Vale and quickly showed signs of the genius he would become. He would go on to attend King’s College, Cambridge and graduated with first-class honours in mathematics before publishing his paper, ‘On Computable Numbers, with an application to the Entscheidungsproblem’. This paper has been called the most influential maths paper in history and created the central concept of the modern computer.

During World War 2, Turing worked as a cryptanalyst for the Government Code and Cypher School. He played a crucial role in cracking coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Nazis in many key engagements and in doing so he helped to win the war. It is hard to know the precise effect that the intelligence had on the war but it is estimated his work shortened the war by more than two years and saved over 14 million lives.

In 1952, Turing began a relationship with a man called Arnold Murray. After reporting a burglary to police, he acknowledged this relationship and both men were charged with ‘gross indecency’ as homosexuality was illegal. After being convicted, Turing was given a choice between imprisonment and probation on the terms of chemical castration via oestrogen injections. He chose probation in order to continue his work; however, his conviction led to the removal of his security clearance and he was barred from continuing his work with the Government Communications Headquarters.

Turing died in June 1954 but the legacy he has left behind for generations to come is incredible. In September 2009, over 55 years after Alan Turing’s death, Gordon Brown, then Prime Minister, released a statement describing the treatment of Turing as appalling and apologising on behalf of the British Government. In December 2013, the Queen signed a pardon for Turing’s conviction of gross indecency and on the 31st of December 2017, the ‘Alan Turing’ law was introduced, posthumously pardoning over 40,000 people. Additionally, there is a wonderful charity in his name called the ‘Turing Trust’ bringing technology to all parts of the world. There is also ‘The Alan Turing Institute’ named in his honour which provides detailed research into all things science. There has been plenty of works of media about his life, famously including ‘Alan Turing: The Enigma’ by Andrew Hodges which was later turned into a film called ‘The Imitation Game’

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