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Turing made 'a greater contribution to defeating the Nazis than Eisenhower or Churchill'
Alan Turing
Manchester's event to honour gay code-breaking genius Alan Turing
Manchester city council is to host an event to honour Alan Turing, the gay mathematician and second world war codebreaker who committed suicide after being prosecuted for homosexuality.
In September, Gordon Brown made a posthumous apology for the treatment that Turing received, after a petition on the No10 website had been signed by 30,805 people.
Alan Turing's work at Bletchley Park in the second world war was, according to one of the leaders of the campaign for an apology, Professor Richard Dawkins, a greater contribution to defeating the Nazis than Eisenhower or Churchill's. After his prosecution for homosexuality and submission to a form of chemical castration as an alternative to a jail sentence, he committed suicide in 1954.
The event, at 12.45pm on Saturday December 5, in Sackville Gardens, where there is a statue of Turing, will include speeches by Graham Stringer MP, the council's city centre spokesman Pat Karney, councillor Mary Murphy and representatives of those who campaigned for the posthumous apology.
Karney said: "We echo the prime minister's recent statement, which rightly honours a man whose genius saved hundreds of thousands of lives in world war two. This event will show to friends and family how proud Manchester is of his historic contribution. Anyone who supports the idea of an event to mark Alan Turing's work is very welcome to attend."
