By Andrew L. Urban
Alan Turing (1912 – 1954), some readers will remember, is the man from Manchester who broke the German’s Enigma code and doing so, probably helped shorten WWII by two years or more, saving hundreds of thousands of lives.
Just seven years after the war ended, in 1952, Turing underwent chemical castration after pleading guilty to a homosexual act. No, I’m not making this up. It came about when he admitted to sexual relations with a man while reporting a burglary.
If that weren’t bizarre enough, now comes a website developed in his honour, to learn about him, his achievements, and the discrimination he faced; and the patron of the website, the company responsible for its creation is a Manchester hotel, the aptly name Jurys Inn.
The Alan Turing Memorial in Manchester describes him as “Father of computer science, mathematician, logician, wartime codebreaker, victim of prejudice”