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The design of a new banknote celebrating mathematician Alan Turing, who assisted Britain win World War Two with his code-breaking skills has been unveiled by the Bank of England.
Turing is believed to have committed suicide after being convicted for having sex with a male partner.
The new 50-pound ($69) note has an image of Turing, mathematical formulae from a 1936 paper he wrote that laid the groundwork for modern computer science, and technical drawings for the machines used to decode the Enigma code.
The polymer note also carries a quote by Turing about the rise of machine intelligence: “This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be.”
Turing built on work by Polish mathematicians who had uncovered how to read Germany’s Enigma code, finding a solution to crack the Nazis’ increased security of the code.
That story was retold in the 2014 film The Imitation Game in which Turing was played by actor Benedict Cumberbatch.
Turing’s work resulted in the decryption of German naval communications that assisted allied convoys steer clear of U-boats and was crucial in the Battle of the Atlantic.
Turing also developed a technique that led to the breaking of Germany’s more sophisticated Lorenz cypher.
In 1952, he was convicted of gross indecency for having sex with a man and underwent chemical castration with injections of female hormones to avoid imprisonment. He lost his security clearance to work with Britain’s GCHQ spy agency.
Until 1967, Homosexual sex was illegal in Britain.
Turing used cyanide to kill commit suicide in 1954, aged 41, according to an inquest at the time.
He was granted a royal pardon by Queen Elizabeth in 2013 for the criminal conviction that preceded his death.
BoE Governor Andrew Bailey in a statement that highlighted the magnitude of Turing’s accomplishments said: “There’s something of the character of a nation in its money.
“He was also gay, and was treated appallingly as a result, by placing him on our new polymer 50-pound banknote, we are celebrating his achievements, and the values he symbolises.” Bailey said.
The head of GCHQ, Jeremy Fleming, said Turing’s image on the note was a landmark moment.
“Turing was embraced for his brilliance and persecuted for being gay. His legacy is a reminder of the value of embracing all aspects of diversity, but also the work we still need to do to become truly inclusive,” Fleming said.
The BoE said it would fly the rainbow flag from its main building in London’s Threadneedle Street on Thursday.
The 50-pound note is the BoE’s highest-value banknote. It will enter circulation on June 23, Turing’s birthday.
($1 = 0.7290 pounds).
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