Turing's pardon

Today, December 24, her “august and magnanimous majesty,” Queen Elizabeth II of England, has issued a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing, who was convicted in 1952 on charges of gross indecency under an English law from 1885. In essence, the father of computing was convicted for being homosexual.

Two years later, depressed at having been subjected to chemical castration, which left him impotent, made his breasts grow, and caused other physical ailments, Turing decided to kill himself by biting an apple poisoned with cyanide.

As my wife says, more than a pardon, which is fine from a legal point of view, what Turing is owed is an apology. And the truth is that it did come, from Prime Minister Gordon Brown in 2009. His homeland owed him an apology, because he was a true hero who saved his country from defeat by Nazi Germany with his work deciphering the secret Enigma codes used by the German navy. An apology for failing to recognize his genius in creating the concepts that led to the development of the modern digital computer, and for so many other contributions to modern science.

Here we have a portrayal of Alan Turing by the great English actor Derek Jacobi, in the 1996 film Breaking The Code: