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Alan Turing He Helped Win WW2. Then Britain Arrested Him.
He helped crack Enigma and win the Second World War. In 1952, Britain arrested him for loving a man.
Alan Turing imagined the computer before it existed, led the codebreakers of Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, and asked a question we are still answering today: can machines think? Two years after his conviction he was dead at 41. It took Britain 55 years to apologise.
Every phone, every laptop, every AI you talk to began in his mind. This is his story.
The facts behind this file
What the record shows
- At Bletchley Park Turing led Hut 8, the section that broke German naval Enigma, for much of the war.
- In 1950 he asked 'Can machines think?' and proposed what is now called the Turing test.
- In 1952 he was prosecuted for 'gross indecency' because of a relationship with a man, and accepted chemical castration instead of prison.
- He died on 7 June 1954, aged 41, of cyanide poisoning.
- In 2009 Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official apology for how he was treated.
Legends, disputes & careful wording
- The inquest ruled his death a suicide. Some, including his mother, believed it was an accident, and the verdict is still debated.
- 'Head of Hut 8' is a simplification: the leadership of Bletchley's work was shared, and he handed Hut 8 over in 1942–43.
Main sources
- Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma (1983)
Spotted a mistake or know a better source? Tell us.
Further reading
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Image & film credits
- King's College Chapel: Martinvl, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Enigma machine: ArnoldReinhold, CC BY-SA 4.0 ·
- Bletchley Park Mansion: DeFacto, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Bombe rebuild: Mike Peel (www.mikepeel.net), CC BY-SA 4.0 ·
- Hut 8: Bibeyjj, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Pilot ACE: Steve Elliott, CC BY-SA 2.0 ·
- Alan Turing Memorial, Manchester: Bryn Holmes, CC BY-SA 2.0 · Blue plaque, Wilmslow: Dunk, CC BY 4.0.
- Other archival photos are public domain or CC0; video clips from Pexels. Music and sound made for this video.
