Alan Turing

Alan Turing was born in 1912 in London, England. Alan Turing's background is described as English. Growing up, the family was middle class — his father served in the Indian Civil Service; the children were left with a retired army couple in England and raised largely apart from their parents. Broke Enigma and defined the computer; convicted for his sexuality, pardoned six decades later.

Born

1912 · London, England

Roots

English

Family

Middle class

His father served in the Indian Civil Service; the children were left with a retired army couple in England and raised largely apart from their parents.

Education

Sherborne School → King's College, Cambridge → Princeton (PhD)

Started with

A children's science book

Natural Wonders Every Child Should Know, read at about ten — he later credited it with opening science to him.

Affiliations & societies

None documented.

Information only — claims like these are often unverifiable and may be wrong.

The pathway

1. 1926 · age 13
   60 miles by bicycle

   Rides two days through the General Strike to reach his first day at Sherborne.

2. 1930 · age 17
   Christopher Morcom dies

   The loss of his closest friend turns his thinking toward minds and machines.

3. 1936 · age 23
   On Computable Numbers

   The universal machine — a mathematical blueprint for every computer since.

4. 1939 · age 27
   Bletchley Park

   Leads Hut 8; his bombe machines break naval Enigma, work kept secret for decades.

5. 1950 · age 37
   The Turing test

   "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" asks whether machines can think.

6. 1952 · age 39
   Convicted

   Found guilty of gross indecency for a relationship with a man; accepts hormone treatment over prison and loses his security clearance.

7. 1954 · age 41
   Dies of cyanide poisoning

   The inquest rules suicide. A prime-ministerial apology comes in 2009, a royal pardon in 2013, and his face on the £50 note in 2021.