Should Alan Turing be pardoned?
http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/
Sit on a bench in Sackville Gardens and you may well be sharing it with Alan Turing, one of the twentieth century's greatest minds, who committed suicide after his career fell apart.
The reasons why his statue graces a seat in the Village and his life ended so tragically are one and the same - Alan Turing was gay.
Turing lived in a time when homosexuality between men was a criminal offence, which meant that in 1952, a decade after his heroic code-breaking work in World War Two, he was convicted of gross indecency for having sex with a man.
He escaped prison by agreeing to undergo experimental hormone therapy to reduce his sex drive, but the pain of his conviction and the professional humiliation that it brought (his security privileges were rescinded, so he could no longer work at the high echelons he had been) was too much.
It pushed him into a spiral of despair which led, two years later, to him taking his own life by eating a cyanide-laced apple at his Wilmslow home.
'Turing has not been recognised'
It is 55 years since that tragic end, but the issues around it still burn brightly for some.
John Graham-Cumming, a computer author and programmer himself, has launched a petition on the Number 10 website , calling for 'the Prime Minister to apologise for the prosecution of Alan Turing that led to his untimely death.'
Adding: 'An apology would recognise the tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man's life and career.'
He says that he set up the petition simply because he feels that "Turing has not been recognised for his work, nor have we recognised the fact that we had lost someone special at the young age of 41."
Alan Turing remembered
There are several tributes to Alan Turing in and around Manchester including:
Bench and statue in Sackville Gardens
University of Manchester building on Upper Brook Street
Blue plaque on his former Wilmslow home
Renamed section of A6010 between Ashton Old Road and Hulme Hall Lane (alongside Sportcity)
"This campaign is about finding justice for Alan Turing.
"We did treat him in an appalling fashion and a pardon by the British Government would go a long way to getting his name into the public domain for the right reasons - for his computer work and his work during the war."
John doesn't believe that the Government will comply with his request, regardless of how many sign the petition, but he remains positive, suggesting there are other ways to change how Truing is perceived.
"While I don't think will happen, I think the best thing would be to get funding set up in his name at Bletchley Park [where Turing served during WWII]."
