23rd June… Happy Birthday to Alan Turing, creator of the code that cracked the German Enigma machine

23rd June… Happy Birthday to Alan Turing, creator of the code that cracked the German Enigma machine  

Born in Maida Vale, London, (Now the Colonnade Hotel Warrington Crescent) Alan Turing graduated at King's College, Cambridge, with a degree in mathematics.

For a time he led Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, the section that was responsible for German naval cryptanalysis. Here, he invented the code and devised a number of techniques for speeding up the breaking of German ciphers, on the electromechanical machine know as Enigma. 

Alan’s work was responsible for saving the lives of many thousands of people. 

After the war Turing was heavily persecuted for being gay, which back then was illegal. 

After being prosecuted in 1952 for a homosexual act, he accepted a chemical castration treatment, as an alternative to prison. 

Turing died in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. 

An inquest determined his death as a suicide, but it has been noted that the known evidence is also consistent with accidental poisoning.

He was posthumously pardoned in 2013. 

THOMAS THE TAXI EXTRA BIT:

During the war, my mothers brother Bobby Sharwood, who worked at the Ultra electronic company, was conscripted to work alongside Turing. (Bobby pictured below, sitting on the steps of the family home Cambridge Road West Kilburn) 

Bobby was transferred to Portland Down to work on a project that would lead to the introduction of Radar. 

After the War, Bobby went back to working at the Ultra. 

As a kid I used to ask uncle Bob about his time on these projects, but he would tell us that as he had signed the official secrets act, he couldn’t say anything.

Alan Turing is finally to be recognised for his fantastic work and will feature on the reverse of the new £50 note, issued today his birthday.