Alan Turing: Manchester’s humble statue tribute to the father of computer science who became an adopted Manc

The Second World War was mainly fought on land, sea and in the skies across the globe. Millions of people died in the efforts to save the world from evil and hatred during the six year conflict. 

Yet a hugely influential part of the war took place not on battlefields, but in offices and buildings of Bletchley park, a top secret British Intelligence headquarters in Buckinghamshire. Their work in breaking the German Enigma code is thought to have shortened the war by up to two years- and the man who helped to do it would go on to become one of Manchester’s most famous adopted sons. 

Alan Turing was born in London in June 1912.  His education included a degree in Mathematics from Cambridge and later, in 1938, a PHD from Princeton University. His theories on computing were what would prove to be key in his selection for work at Bletchley Park. 

To try and work out the Enigma code, Turing developed the Bombe. This was a machine that would crack the code on July 9 1941 in what was a significant event in the war. 

Thanks to Turing, The British were able to decipher German codes that would tell of where their ships and submarines were. This gave the Allies an advantage and over the course of the war, more and more British vessels were able to be saved. 

Alan Turing and Manchester

It was after the war when Turing’s relationship with Manchester began. In 1948, he was appointed as a reader in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Manchester. It was a year later, when appointed as deputy director of the Computing Machine Laboratory at the university that he began to work on the Manchester Mark 1- what would become one of the earliest computers. 

During his time in Manchester, Turing also worked on ideas around artificial intelligence and in 1950 he proposed the ‘Turing Test’. This was designed to define a standard for a machine to be labelled as ‘intelligent’, and its intelligence was rated on whether or not a human could tell it apart in conversation from another human. 

The death and legacy of Alan Turing 

Despite the incredible work undertaken by Turing, and the fact people high up in British Intelligence knew what he had done had helped to shorten the Second World War, his life would end in tragedy. Turing was gay, something which was illegal in the UK right up until 1967. 

In 1952 Turing was in a relationship with Arnold Murray. One night, when the couple were out, Turin’s house was burgled. He reported the crime to the police and during the investigation it was discovered that the two men were gay. This led to them being arrested for ‘gross indecency’ and in March they were taken to trial. 

Whilst Murray was given a conditional discharge, Turing was given a choice. He would either go to prison, or be given probation, which was essentially chemical castration. Two years later, on June 7 1954, Alan Turing died.

The cause of death was discovered to be cyanide poisoning, and it is thought that Turing ingested the poison through an apple. He was just 41 years of age.     

Turing’s work, both during the war and in peacetime, were influential in shaping technology of the 21st century. He was persecuted by the country he had done so much for purely because of his sexuality, and he and other homosexuals would have to wait until July 2012 to be officially pardoned by the UK Government. 

He is now the face of the £50 note, and is remembered every year at Manchester Pride with a stage bearing his name set up in the Gay Village during the event. The poignant statue of him, sitting on a bench in Sackville Park, is within Manchester’s Gay Village and keeps the memory of the remarkable man and adopted Mancunian Alan Turing alive.