Subscribe now and receive weekly newsletters with educational materials, new courses, interesting posts, popular books, and much more!
Articles
Winston Churchill’s Great Contemporaries: Alan Turing
- By THE CHURCHILL PROJECT
- | July 8, 2015
- Category: Churchill in WWII Great Contemporaries Truths and Heresies
Since the early 1990s it has been stated and endlessly repeated that Winston Churchill said Alan Turing OBE FRS (1912-1954) “made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory in the war against Nazi Germany.” Turing’s contribution was indeed great, but there is no record of Churchill having issued such a singular encomium.
As head of Hut 8 at Bletchley Park, cryptanalyst Alan Turing (pronounced “TWER-ing”) wrote the theoretical description of a programmable digital computer before any had been built, and formalized the concept of the algorithm—vital steps toward the modern computer. Turing also developed the electro-mechanical “bombe” that found settings for the German Enigma key.
Turing was honored by George VI but treated reprehensively by the postwar British government, which disregarded his wartime contributions. In 1952 he was prosecuted for homosexual acts, which were still criminalized in the UK. In lieu of prison he accepted treatment with estrogen injections (chemical castration). He died in 1954, less than forty-two years old, allegedly from suicide through cyanide poisoning, but some believed his death was accidental.
In 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official apology on behalf of the British government for the way in which Turing had been treated.
Turing’s sad end has given rise to supposition that Churchill was a homophobe, which claims as proof the despicable treatment of Turing in the Fifties. But Churchill had no part in this, and his only expressed concern for homosexuals, several of whom were close friends of his, was that in those days they were susceptible to blackmail.
We find no attribution to a specific statement by Churchill that Turing “made the biggest single contribution to Allied victory,” although we would not be surprised to learn he said something along those lines. Churchill was a generous man, who honored those who gave their all for victory. In August 1940 in his famous tribute to “The Few,” it was the Royal Air Force which he said were “turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and devotion.” He certainly knew who Turing was from correspondence with the scientist.
Professor David Stafford, whose Churchill and Secret Service is a standard work and who has spent a lifetime of research on the subject, writes: “I do not think Churchill would have heaped such extravagant praise on any one individual, as distinct from, say, the vast team at Bletchley Park and its collective effort. Of course I can’t prove it, although I wish I could.”
The Government certainly knew that Alan Turing had been arrested because he was privy to information that Churchill himself had declared would remain top secret even after the war. Churchill had only to pick up the phone to have Turing released either on his authority as Prime Minister or as a matter of national security.
=
How wise we are in hindsight. RML
It wasn’t only the postwar British government that behaved badly toward homosexuals like Turing, it was the entire social construct of the country at that time. I remember my own father saying, “I consider homosexuality a more abhorrent crime than murder.” He was not alone. The British have a long history of achievement but parallel to this they have a reprehensible record for stupidity, particularly amongst those who have been referred to as the “ruling class.” If it were not for the fact that Turing helped win a major victory, I believe it might have been better justice, considering how he would be later treated, had he left the UK and its intellectually stunted hierarchy to drown in their own conceit.
The biggest betrayal of any monarchy/Government ever it was disgusting… how people from that time allowed this to happen I will never ever know…
How like Hillsdale to put the primary focus on Turing’s homosexuality rather than his truly remarkable contribution to the conduct of WW II and astounding insights leading to the development of modern computers and ultimately to artificial intelligence.
–
I wrote that and wonder what you’re reading. We called Turing a “Great Contemporary,” which indeed he was. We referred to his persecution for homosexuality as “reprehensible.” We checked a quotation praising him but could not attribute it to Churchill, although we said we wouldn’t be surprised if Churchill said that. We addressed the canard that Churchill was a homophobe, which he was not. Try reading what is written instead of exercising your preconceived notions. -R.M. Langworth