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Astatue of Alan TuringTuring had the idea of the 'bombe', a mechanical computer. Details were added by others, and it was built by a Post Office engineer. This is a rebuild of the original
Turing was born in Maida Vale, London. His father came from a Scottish merchant family. His mother, Ethel Sara Stoney, was the daughter of anengineer fromIreland. Turing was very good at math when he was young.
In 1936, Turing wrote about a theoretical machine called theTuring machine. This idea became important in the development ofcomputers. He also created the idea of acomputer program.
DuringWorld War II, Turing worked atBletchley Park. He helped break secret German messages made by theEnigma machine. This helped theAllies win the war and may have saved millions of lives.
Turing washomosexual. In1952, he admitted to having sex with a man. At that time, being gay was illegal in the UK. He wasconvicted and had to choose betweenprison or taking hormones to reduce his sex drive. He chose themedicine.[4] This caused him health problems likeimpotence and breast growth.[5]
In 2009, apetition asked the UK Government to say sorry for how Turing was treated.[7][8] Prime MinisterGordon Brown later gave an apology and called Turing's treatment "appalling".[9]
↑Newman M.H.A. 1955. Alan Mathison Turing. 1912–1954.Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society1: 253.Archived 2015-03-28 at theWayback Machine
↑Copeland, B. Jack 2006.Colossus: The secrets of Bletchley Park's code-breaking computers. Oxford University Press. p108ISBN978-0-19-284055-4
