Alan Turing and the keyboard of the Enigma machine he played a pivotal role in defeating Britain has announced a posthumous pardon for Alan Turing, the World War II code-breaking hero who committed suicide after he was convicted of the then crime of homosexuality. Turing is considered the father of modern computing and he played a pivotal role in defeating Germany's supposedly unbreakable Enigma military and civil communications code, thus contributing to an early end to World War II. Two years after he was sentenced to chemical castration for the "gross indecency" of homosexuality, Turing died in 1954, after eating an apple laced with cyanide. There has in recent times been doubt about the suicide finding made by a coroner at the time of the scientist's death. Queen Elizabeth has now pardoned Turing for "a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory", UK justice minister Chris Grayling said. Turing's pardon was supported by a group of influential scientists including Professor Stephen Hawking. Homosexuality was decriminalised in Britain in 1967.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 25th December 2013 - 12:09am