Alan Turing Memorial

Coordinates: 53°28′36.2″N 2°14′9.7″W / 53.476722°N 2.236028°W / 53.476722; -2.236028

The Alan Turing Memorial

The Alan Turing Memorial, situated in Sackville Park in Manchester, England,^[1] is a sculpture in memory of Alan Turing,^[2] a pioneer of modern computing. Turing is believed to have committed suicide in 1954 two years after being convicted of gross indecency (i.e. homosexual acts). As such he is as much a gay icon as an icon of computing, and the memorial is situated near to Canal Street, Manchester's gay village.^[3]

Turing is depicted sitting on a bench situated in a central position in the park. On Turing's left is the University of Manchester and on his right is Canal Street.

The statue was unveiled on 23 June, Turing's birthday, in 2001. It was conceived by Richard Humphry, a barrister from Stockport, who set up the Alan Turing Memorial Fund in order to raise the necessary funds. Humphry had come up with the idea of a statue after seeing Hugh Whitemore's play Breaking the Code, starring Sir Derek Jacobi. Jacobi became the patron of the Fund. Glyn Hughes, an industrial sculptor from Adlington near Westhoughton, was commissioned to sculpt the statue.^[4] Roy Jackson (who had previously raised funds for HIV/AIDS and Gay Awareness in Manchester) was asked to assist in the funding raising to make the memorial happen. Within 12 months, through donations and a "village lottery", the money was raised. This allowed the statue to be cast in China. Glyn Hughes had found contacts that could manufacture and ship an identical bronze statue to that which would have cost c. £50,000 in the UK. The cost of the memorial was achieved with the £16,000 raised.

Turing Memorial plaque.

Turing is shown holding an apple. The cast bronze bench carries in relief the text "Alan Mathison Turing 1912–1954" and the motto "Founder of Computer Science" as it would appear if encoded by an Enigma machine; 'IEKYF RQMSI ADXUO KVKZC GUBJ'.

A plaque at the statue's feet says "Father of computer science, mathematician, logician, wartime codebreaker, victim of prejudice". There is also a Bertrand Russell quotation saying "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty — a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture."

Gallery[]

• 

  Flowers on Alan Turing's Memorial, 2012.

• 

  Turing Memorial close-up, showing the apple he holds

• 

  Turing Memorial with the Engineering and Physical Sciences Faculty Office of the University of Manchester in the background.

• 

  Turing Memorial looking at Sackville Street.

• 

  Sackville Park looking toward the Sackville Building, University of Manchester.

• 

  The London 2012 Olympic Torch stopped off at Turing's statue in Manchester on his 100th birthday.

• 

  Flowers at the statue in 2018, the day before Turing's 106th birthday.

See also[]

• 2001 in art
• Alan Turing statue (2007), Bletchley Park, England
• Alan Turing sculpture (1988), Eugene, Oregon
• List of LGBT monuments and memorials

References[]