Alan Turing's statue at Bletchley Park. Photograph: Bletchley Park museum
Alan Turing is arguably the gay man who most changed the world in the 20th-century. It's thanks to him that you're reading this online - and in English, not German.
He is widely acknowledged as the father of the computer and artificial intelligence. At Bletchley Park, the British intelligence HQ during the second world war, Turing's proto computer, the Bombe, cracked the Nazi's Enigma Code - helping to turn the tide in the allies' favour, and shortening the war by years.
This week a new statue of Turing was unveiled at Bletchley Park. Though bizarrely the publicity materials neglect to mention he was gay.
True, his homosexuality may have been incidental to his work, but it was instrumental in his death - alongside Oscar Wilde and Harvey Milk, he is one of the great gay martyrs.
In 1952, Turing went to the police to report a break-in at his house by a 19-year-old man he'd picked up. When Turing admitted they'd had a sexual relationship he was charged with "gross indecency". He was only spared prison as he agreed to hormone treatment - effectively chemical castration. He also had his security clearance removed and had to discontinue intelligence work.
In 1954, Turing was found dead at his home, a half-eaten apple laced with cyanide beside him. Suicide was not proven, but his biographer Alan Hodges has speculated that he left no note to allow his beloved mother to reach an "open verdict".
The new statue looks impressive. Life-size and made out of thousands of pieces of Welsh slate, it depicts him sitting pensively at one of his code-breaking machines. It is not the first. In Manchester's Sackville Park, between Canal Street's gay village and the University science department where he once worked, you can sit next to Glyn Hughes' bronze statue of Turing sitting on a bench, clasping an apple. It was unveiled in 2001 by The Alan Turing Memorial Fund, which points out that not one major computer firm contributed funds. At the University of Surrey, near to where he grew up, a giant statue of Turing by John W Mills strides across the campus clutching a pile of books.
There is an Alan Turing Way in Manchester, various Alan Turing departments, centres, and awards around the world, and three blue plaques. In 2002, he was voted 21st in the BBC's 100 Great Britons poll.
But my favourite tribute to Alan Turing may well be staring you in the face. Although never officially acknowledged, the Apple computer logo is often presumed to be not a reference to Adam and Eve, or even Sir Isaac Newton, but to the sad death of - and great debt owed to - Alan Turing.
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Comments
19 June 2007 3:58PM
Right on.
19 June 2007 4:01PM
Forgive my ignorance, but I know of very few commemorative sculptures that celebrate the sexuality of the subject. Alan Turing was an accomplished athlete, but there are no sculptures that reflect this either.
Turing was a gay martyr in what sense? In the sense that you know for a fact that his possible suicide was a direct result of attitudes to his sexuality? I thought my psychic powers were good, but yours are better by far!
19 June 2007 4:10PM
"Forgive my ignorance, but I know of very few commemorative sculptures that celebrate the sexuality of the subject. Alan Turing was an accomplished athlete, but there are no sculptures that reflect this either."
The Alan Turing Memorial Fund delberately chose to site their statue close to Manchester's gay village, because they thought his homosexuality was of some import. He was a very stroppy and politicised queen for his time, apparently, which is why he didn't deny to the police he'd had sex with that man.
"Turing was a gay martyr in what sense?"
Shall we start with him getting arrested and having to undergo some bizarro medical "treatment" just for having consesual sex?
19 June 2007 4:20PM
Actually, I'd start with the fact that his arrest quite comprehensively ended his career, because the military at the time considered this a far more important fact than piddling little things like being the single person most responsible for the Allied victory.
If I were casting nasturtiums, I'd suggest it's because the whole thing is rather embarrasing from the point of view of the authorities that made that stupid decision.
I'd agree that his acts as Alpha Geek Of All Time are more important to me. But then, I'm not gay.
19 June 2007 5:13PM
"In the sense that you know for a fact that his possible suicide was a direct result of attitudes to his sexuality?"
As there was no note, no one can be 100% certain that he committed suicide - the coroner's report said the cause of his death was "self-administered potassium cyanide while in a moment of mental imbalance."
But I don't know of anyone who doesn't doubt it was suicide.
Why do you think Turing might have taken his own life?
Bad weather?
20 June 2007 9:32AM
As there's already a statue that explicitly acknowledges his 'homosexual martyrdom', surely the one at Bletchley is best to concentrate on his work there? I'm sure he would wish to be remembered for his achievements in life as well as the manner of his death.
And how do you make a statue gay? As I understand from your article and comments, the one in Manchester is relevant mostly because of its location.
20 June 2007 12:47PM
"Surely the one at Bletchley is best to concentrate on his work there? I'm sure he would wish to be remembered for his achievements in life as well as the manner of his death."
Yes, I agree - what irked was that the museum had ignored any mention of his sexuality, in all biographical and publicity materials. It's hardly irrelevant - why was he made to stop working there, for example.
They have form on this.
http://uk.gay.com/article/5630
The director of Bletchley Park has now apologised for the "omission", and promised to make amends in the near future.
He told journalist Stewart Who? "I plan to put together a full exhibition on Turing to explain his huge contribution to the war effort as well as to the development of mathematics and computers and, in order to present the history in a correct and balanced way, part of the story would necessarily include Turing the man, his sexuality and althletic skills. The treatment of him by the authorities of the day is also a very relevant in the context of those times. All of this is in the future but this may be the catalyst for ensuring we get this part of his history correctly told and I would welcome discussion about how best to present his sexuality in the context of everything else to ensure we have a fully balanced presentation."
"And how do you make a statue gay?"
That wasn't what I was arguing, but possible ways of doing that will doubtless keep me amused for the rest of the morning.
20 June 2007 1:08PM
And another thing!
What adds irony to the insult and injury, was that Turing was really bold and pretty bolshy about being gay, especially for his time - he died 13 years before homosexuality was decriminalised. He was certainly not convinced that one should be quiet about being queer. Various colleagues at Bletchley Park told his biographer Andrew Hodges at how jaws would crash to the floor when Alan would casually drop into a conversation that he was gay. He even argued with the arresting officer, apparently claiming he had done no thing wrong, and telling him (albeit a little prematurely); 'A Royal Commission is sitting to legalise it.' He also used to dash off stroppy letters to hypocritical and/or homophobic MPs and the like - the blogging of its day...
20 June 2007 6:17PM
Excellent article, thanks. That's a gay hero then.
22 June 2007 5:32PM
So Richard, what you're saying is that Alan Turing is almost as much of a gay martyr as George Michael?