100 Heroes: Alan Turing

Alan Turing was a computer scientist, mathematician, logician, encryption-analyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist.

During World War II, Turing worked as part of Britain’s code-breaking centre, where he devised a number of techniques for cracking the intercepted coded messages. Turing is credited with helping the Allied forces to defeat the Germans in a number of key battles, including the Battle of the Atlantic.

Turing was particularly influential in the development of theoretical computer science, inventing the Turing Machine  –  a forerunner of what we now know as a computer. Turing is considered to have been one of the key thinkers in the field of computer science and artificial intelligence.

The life and death of Alan Turing

Born in 1912, Turing died in 1954 at the age of 41.

In 1952, Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency for a sexual encounter with another man. At this time in England, homosexuality was a criminal offence.

As an alternative to prison, Turing agreed to chemical castration treatment.

Turing died of cyanide poisoning. An inquest concluded that his death was suicide.

The arrest of Alan Turing

Unlike many other men at that time, Turing's conviction for gross indecency didn't stem from an arrest while he was cottaging - cruising for sex. During this period, police were actively patrolling known cruising locations and entrapping men suspected of seeking a sexual encounter.

Turing's downfall came about because he reported a burglary to police.

At sometime in January 1952, Turing started a relationship with Arnold Murray. On 23rd January, Turing’s house was burgled. Murray told Turing that he knew the burglar. Turing reported this to the police, and in the course of the investigation admitted that he and Murray were in a relationship. Both men were charged with ‘gross indecency’.

If Turing hadn't reported the burglary, he may have avoided any police interest in his relationship with Murray and his other sexual encounters with men.

Simon Goldhill, a professor at Cambridge University, suggests that Turing may have been a bit naive - not realising the dangers of disclosing to the police the details of his relationship.

In his book, Queer Cambridge, Goldhill describes how Turing's formative years at King's College may have given him a false sense of confidence when dealing with the police.

Goldhill's research indicates that there was a very strong community of gay men at King's College during Turing's era. It was an all-male college where the principal and many senior tutors openly talked about their sexuality and about having sex with men.

According to Goldhill, this community of gay men is likely to have emerged because King's exclusively admitted students from Eton College. Everyone coming to King's already knew each other, they had all lived together as young boys. At that time, it's widely documented that Eton was a bit of a sexual hot-spot for the men and boys within that closed community. Those close connections and general acceptance of male intimacy appears to have continued uninterrupted from Eton onto King's. It was a safe space in which gay men could thrive.

Although by the time that Turing reached King's, it was no longer exclusively tied to Eton, it had retained its reputation as a gay college and it was a place where Turing formed strong social connections and had numerous relationships.

Turing joined King's College at the age of 18 and stayed there until he was 24. He was 35 when he was arrested. While he undoubtedly continued to move within social circles where his sexuality was widely known and welcomed, it's hard to imagine that Turing was unaware of the men being routinely arrested by the police. It seems more likely that as they began to investigate the burglary, the police began to suspect the nature of Turing and Murray's relationship and pushed for confirmation.

Turing learned the hard way that it's generally best-advised to keep the police out of your business.

The pardon of Alan Turing

In 2009, the British Prime Minister made a public apology to Turing on behalf of the British Government.

In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted Turing a posthumous pardon.

The legacy of Alan Turing

The early 1950s was a period of persecution for gay men in the UK, with over 1,000 gay men imprisoned and countless more lives ruined by blackmail, entrapment, and prosecution.

The arrest and punishment of Alan Turing was among the most high profile persecutions of gay men during this period. The treatment of Turing seems particularly perverse, given the role he had played in defending Britain during World War II.

It’s likely that Turing’s arrest and subsequent death played a part in the establishment of the Wolfenden Committee, which ultimately led to the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK.

A posthumous pardon and a portrait on a bank note seem to be of little consequence when Turing’s life was consciously and deliberately destroyed, depriving us all of the benefit of his mathematical genius. However, by celebrating Turing’s work and contribution to the world as we know it today, it does send a powerful signal that LGBTQ people are now valued and a key part of our society.