Many people have heard of the brilliance of Alan Turing’s wartime exploits as immortalised in the film, The Imitation Game realised in 2014, however fewer people know about his connection to the local history of Hampton and Teddington.
Turing was born on the 23rd June 1912 in Maida Vale, London. He was however educated at Sherborne School in Dorset. Here he was famously describe by one of his science teachers that had “vague ideas” and would never amount to anything- a very misguided and as time would prove, an incorrect viewpoint.
From there he went on to study mathematics at Kings Collage, Cambridge where he graduated with first class honours. Having been at Cambridge from 1931 to 1934 he moved to the United States and its was here at Princeton University where he completed his PhD. Among topics he enjoyed working on was cryptology which he would later go on to achieve fame for during the Second World War.
After Britain had declared war on Germany in the infamous Neville Chamberlain speech of September 1939, Alan Turing took up work Bletchley Park. Turing, always eager for a challenge, signed up just one day after the declaration.
During the War Turing led Hut 8 which was the section tasked with the breaking and cryptology of German naval vessels. He came up with a large number of ways of cipher techniques including improving the Polish bombe method from before the war and the creation of a machine to crack the German coding machine, the enigma.
It has been estimated that as a result of his work during the Second World War he save some 14 million lives and shortened the war by up to two years.
Following the war Turing lived in Hampton from 1945 to 1947. Whilst living in Hampton Turing worked at the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in Teddington. His work at NPL focused on the Automatic Computer Engine (ACE) which was described by Turing as a “universal computing machine”, based on the earlier work and in homage to Charles Babbage.
In October 1947 NPL permitted Turing a year away from Teddington at his former alma mater in Cambridge. Alas he would never return to the local area and would go on to Manchester University. One light hearted point of note is that Turing was reportedly in serious consideration for the 1948 London Olympics as he would often run to lectures and briefings however injury sadly cut this short.
It would be in Manchester that Turing, where he was arrested for having a homosexual relationship on the 31st March 1952, that Turing would end his life. Instead of a custodial sentence Turing accepted chemical injections to neutralise his supposed chemical imbalance. Tragically he committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide unable to cope with the world around him.
However the nature of Turing would not end with his death and a huge internet campaign the government apologized for “the appalling way he was treated." Later in 2013 he would receive a posthumous pardon. His name continues to live on not only in the pantheons of British history but in our local area as well, as our own small contribution to the incredible world of war-time Britain and indeed to the scientific community.
James Dowden
Hampton School
