Gay British scientist and code-breaker Alan Turing received a royal pardon by the Queen on Tuesday, 60 years after he was chemically castrated for being a homosexual.
“Dr. Turing deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science,” British Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said in a statement Tuesday, according to a CNN story. “A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man.”
Turing is best-known for working for the British government during World War II and creating the Bombe, a device that could break the codes sent from German machines including the infamous Enigma messages. He was also a skilled mathematician and a leader in computer and software design, becoming known as the “father of modern computing.”
In 1952 he was arrested and convicted of being a homosexual and chose to take female hormones as a form of castration rather than be sent to prison. In 1957, he committed suicide by cyanide poisoning. He was only 41.
In 2009, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a posthumous apology for how Turing was treated after some 30,000 people signed an online petition demanding the UK government acknowledge the “tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man’s life and career.”
Today, a life-size bronze statue of Turing holding an apple and seated on a bronze bench is situated is located in Sackville St Gardens in Manchester, England.