World War II codebreaker Alan Turing is the new face of the UK £50 banknote, the Bank of England announced on Monday. His life and work was depicted in the 2014 film, The Imitation Game.
Turing, who is considered the father of modern computing, died of cyanide poisoning in 1954 after being convicted of gross indecency for homosexuality. It is said that he ate an apple laced with the poison. He was pardoned of the conviction in 2013.
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From the Bank of England’s site: “Alan Turing provided the theoretical underpinnings for the modern computer. While best known for his work devising code-breaking machines during WWII, Turing played a pivotal role in the development of early computers first at the National Physical Laboratory and later at the University of Manchester. He set the foundations for work on artificial intelligence by considering the question of whether machines could think. Turing was homosexual and was posthumously pardoned by the Queen having been convicted of gross indecency for his relationship with a man. His legacy continues to have an impact on both science and society today.”
