3-089-969 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Alan Turing (1912-1954), Sherborne Schooll, Dorset, 1928. Portrait of British mathematician, logician and code breaker Alan Turing as a schoolboy. Turing joined the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, as part of the team who broke the Enigma code. In 1942 he devised the first systematic method for breaking messages encrypted by the sophisticated German cipher machine known as 'Tunny' by the British. After the war, he joined the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in London, and designed the Automatic Computing Engine (ACE). In 1952 Turing was convicted of "gross indecency" - homosexuality was then a crime in Britain - and was forced to have hormone "therapy." He was discovered dead in bed, poisoned by cyanide. The official verdict was suicide, but no motive was found. In 2009 the British government publicly apologized for Turing's treatment, and he was granted a royal pardon. Private Collection. (Colorised black and white print).