Alan Turing: life of the week

Alan Turing is one of the most celebrated of all British scientists. His work in cracking Nazi codes at Bletchley Park and his role in the evolution of the computer has earned him worldwide acclaim. Yet he died at the age of just 41, two years after being prosecuted for homosexual acts. In this episode of the History Extra podcast, David Kenyon, research historian at Bletchley Park, tells Spencer Mizen about a brilliant life marred by tragedy. David, it's a real pleasure to welcome you to the History Extra podcast today to talk about the life and legacy of Alan Choring.

As a research historian at Bletchley Park, you're clearly very familiar with Choring's life and work. You've done plenty of research into him and written about him. With this in mind, I wonder if you could give our listeners a quick introduction to Turing. How significant, in your opinion, was his contribution to modern British history? Well, Alan Turing's contribution to British history, to where we are today.

is very, very important on a number of levels. The obvious one from Bletchley Park's point of view is that he was instrumental in breaking a number of German cipher systems during World War II. And obviously that gave the Allied powers a tremendous advantage during the war. And Eisenhower wrote a letter saying it had contributed significantly to Allied victory. So his his role in World War II is is the most obvious one, but he was also a mathematician and logician of great powers.

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