The Prime Minister has apologised for the treatment ofAlan Turing, the father of Computer Science, after
World War Two, which led to his suicide by cyanide poisoning in
1954.
In a statement on the
Number 10
website, Gordon Brown, said, "On behalf of the British
government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan's work, I
am very proud to say: 'we're sorry, you deserved so much
better'."
In 1952, Turing was found guilty of gross indecency after being
outed as a homosexual. Faced with the choice of chemical castration
or a prison sentence, he took his own life in 1954, by eating an
apple laced with cyanide.
Brown said, "Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most
famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no
exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the
history of World War Two could have been very different. He truly
was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique
contribution helped to turn the tide of war."
