WWII codebreaker Turing honored on UK’s new 50-pound note

LONDON — The rainbow flag flew proudly Thursday above the Bank of England in the heart of London’s financial district to commemorate World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, the new face of Britain’s 50-pound note. He was also gay and was treated appallingly as a result.” During World War II, Turing worked at the secret Bletchley Park code-breaking center, where he helped crack Enigma by creating the “Turing bombe,” a forerunner of modern computers. Actor and author Stephen Fry said the latest commemoration of Turing marks another step in the nation’s long overdue recognition of “this very great man,” whose “talents ranged far and wide.” In a YouTube video posted by the bank, Fry laid out the levels of discrimination and “barbaric punishments” that gay men faced in the years after World War II. As part of the new note’s design — which includes a metallic hologram that changes between the words “Fifty’ and ”Pounds” when the note is tilted and an image of a microchip — the bank collaborated with U.K. intelligence and security agency GCHQ to create The Turing Challenge, a set of 12 puzzles GCHQ said the full challenge could take an experienced puzzler seven hours to complete and may have even left Turing “scratching his head, although we very much doubt it.” Turing’s great-nephew James Turing, who runs the Turing Trust that refurbishes U.K. computers for use in African schools, told BBC radio that the puzzle is “a wonderful recognition, and a bit reminiscent of the famous crossword that they used for recruiting at Bletchley Park back in the day.”