Turing on The Currency of England

Alan Turing, famous mathematician, is soon going to be on the fifty-pound polymer currency. It will also include a quote from Turing ‘This is only a foretaste of what is to come and only the shadow of what is going to be.’

Introducing the face of the new £50 note – the father of computer science, Alan Turing.” Find out more https://t.co/pO7eu9nfHT #Turing50 #ThinkScience pic.twitter.com/RLmXD0QUQY

— Bank of England (@bankofengland) July 15, 2019

Turing is best known for his work at Bletchley Park, to decipher messages sent by the Nazis. He also cracked Germany’s Enigma code, saving thousands of lives and hastening the end of World War II.

‘Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today’, the Bank of England’s Governor, Mark Carney, said in unveiling the new note to media. ‘Alan Turing’s contributions were far-ranging and pathbreaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.’

Turing was convicted of homosexuality under the Victorian Era Law. Mathematician chose chemical castration to avoid custodial sentence and at the age of 41, and did suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

In year 2009, Former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, stated that Turing deserved better and issued a full apology. PM also thanked him for his ‘contribution to humankind’ and for fighting fascism and war.

Queen Elizabeth II issued a royal pardon for Turing in late 2013.

In recent years, other updates to the Bank of England’s currency have featured Jane Austen on the 10-pound note and Winston Churchill on the Five pound. A new 20-pound note is expected next year, bearing a self-portrait by the artist J.M.W. Turner.