Alan Turing, the British computer pioneer whose code-breaking work helped the Allies win World War II, has been posthumously granted a royal pardon for his 1952 conviction for indecency over a homosexual relationship.
Turing was 27 when, at the outbreak of World War II, he reported to Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking headquarters northwest of London. He was responsible for a series of breakthroughs that allowed the cracking of the German Enigma code, allowing the Allies to read all the Nazi communications.
CONVICTION
After the war, Turing became a consultant to Government Communications Headquarters, the successor to Bletchley Park. In 1952, he told police about a gay relationship while reporting a burglary and found himself on trial. He underwent chemical castration and lost his security clearance. Two years later he poisoned himself with cyanide.
“Turing was an exceptional man with a brilliant mind,” British Secretary of State for Justice Chris Grayling said in a statement yesterday, announcing the pardon. “His later life was overshadowed by his conviction for homosexual activity, a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory, and which has now been repealed. Dr Turing deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science.”
TURING MACHINE
In 1936, at age 23, Turing submitted a paper describing the concept of a theoretical computer that would become known as a “Turing Machine.”
In 1950, he proposed a way to judge whether a computer had achieved artificial intelligence, the “Turing Test.” Both ideas formed the foundations of their disciplines.
Turing was named by Time magazine in 1999 as one of its 100 most influential people of the 20th century.
Royal pardons are exceptional in the UK, with only three granted in recent years, according to the government.
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