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| Codebreaker - Alan Turing |
THE work of mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing is said to have shortened the Second World War by four years.
His work should have led him to be hailed as a national hero but instead he was hounded for his sexuality. Here’s what you need to know about him.
Alan Turing was born on June 1912 in Maida Vale, London and from an early age it was clear that he was highly intelligent.
When he was nine, his both his primary school headmistress and his secondary school maths teacher declared him to be a “genius” in reports.
He passed the time by working out complex chess problems on his own, according to the British Library.
Teachers were often annoyed with him for his high marks in exams despite him paying little attention during lessons.
Where was he educated and what standard of runner was he?
Turing began studying mathematics at King's College Cambridge, in 1931 and graduated in 1934 with a first class degree...
Turing died two years later from cyanide poisoning in an apparent suicide - though there have been suggestions his death was an accident.
In 2013 he was officially pardoned thanks to a campaign backed by MPs and celebrities like Professor Stephen Hawking, Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Thousands of other gay and bisexual men convicted of consensual same-sex relationships were also posthumously pardoned under what became known as ‘Turing’s Law’.
Read more...
Source: The Sun
