There haven't been many times when I've been pleased about anything Gordon Brown has done, but today he made me quite emotional. The government has given an apology to code-breaker Alan Turing for the treatment he received (both legal and physical) after his conviction for homosexual acts in 1952.
Although not exactly a son of Nottinghamshire, Turing can claim to be a grandson: his father Julius was born in Edwinstowe, the son of the village's vicar. The Turing family itself originates in Scotland, but through the royal Scottish line they are descended from "Queen" Edward II.
Alan Turing was a genius. His grasp of mathematics helped the war-time code-breakers at Bletchley Park to beat the Nazi war machine. It was by no means a one-man effort as all those at Bletchley might possibly be referred to as geniuses, but Turing was the first to find the answers to the problems.
The Nazi persecution of homosexuals is well-known, but after their evil was defeated Turing had to fight another battle against home-grown homophobia. It beggars belief to hear of the medical treatment Turing and hundreds of others were forced by law to undergo - chemical castration for example. In the end it was too much for Turing. A court case and medical treatment drove him to suicide. By eating an apple laced with poison he ended his life at an age (42 years) and a time (the 1950s) when his mathematical skills could have launched him to world icon status equal to Einstein. Instead, his sexuality and the society in which he lived ensured that his name was ignored until relatively recently.
The whole computer age could have begun decades earlier if Turing was able to continue working. There's no reason why he couldn't still be alive today, at the age of 97, working away at a computer his mathematical theories helped to create.
And if you're not sure about the significance of his work think about this: spend one day without anything that requires a computer, microchip or digital signal. In effect, live exactly as Alan Turing did in the 1950s. Even the unravelling of the DNA genome could not have been done without a computer, nor could any of the interminable effects seen on TV and film.
To return to Nottinghamshire's Rainbow Heritage click on http://www.nottsrainbowheritage.org.uk/
