 by Dr. Jeffrey Lant Author's program note. In the darkest days of World War II, in 1942, Great Britain held... but only held with the thinnest of thin red lines. Its valiant, uncomplaining people were worn, hungry, fearful and anxious and rightly so, for never before had starving the nation into submission been so possible, so likely. The Nazis had discovered their most potent and inexorable tool, the empty, gnawing stomach. The drill went something like this. The British needed so many million tons of food imports to keep home and hearth alive. Without them mass starvation loomed and the nation brought to its knees. Thus, all the Germans needed was the means to achieve this result and victory must be theirs. Their weapon of deadly purpose was the submarine and in the winter of this dismal, disheartening year the wolf packs grew bloated on their easy prey. Everyone knew the Yanks would come, were coming but when... when? Everyone from Prime Minister Winston Churchill down believed it, knew it, prayed for it, expected it... but when? And what could be done until they did? This is where Alan Turing, just 30 that fateful year, and his fellow geeks and geniuses stepped forward to combat the deadly menace of the German silent service with their magnificent brains, the best in Britain. Verily, never before had so many owed so much to so few. Turing was arguably the best of these best which only makes this outrageous tale the more egregious and shameful. About Alan Turing, OBE, FRS, born 23 June 1912. Abraham Lincoln once said that God must have loved the common man, he made so many of him. God's relationship with the exceptional man, the extraordinary man, the genius has always been more equivocal and difficult, since they often challenge the very existence of God Himself, as Alan Turing most assuredly did, though never publicly or with contumely or rancor. Turing was born into the glory days of the great British imperium, his father a distinguished member of the Indian Civil Service, a Scotsman like so many who administered the jewel in the crown. Such people, with their intricate pecking order sustained an empire, getting the best of everything... and were unshakable in their deep-seated point of view that they deserved it. This was the world of pukka, polo, and POSH (port out, starboard home). This was the Raj, reigned over by the King-Emperor, the Great Servant of God, the Master of uncounted millions, the man Alan Turing did so much to save to fight another day, the man who did so little for him, when so little was all that was required. What you must know about young Turing is what everyone who knew him knew, namely that he was intelligent to a degree none of them had ever seen before... and would most likely never see again. What to do with Alan came to be the hot potato of their lives and his, right to the bitter end. What kind of a boy was he? Just one anecdote reveals. His very first day as a new student at the prestigious Sherborne School in the market town of Sherborne in Dorset coincided with the 1926 General Strike. He could have stayed home like millions did. Instead he rode his bicycle more than 60 miles from Southampton, stopping overnight at an inn, to be there... on time... whatever the obstacle. He was just 14, and this was his code for the remainder of his short, extraordinary life. Solving advanced problems at 16. Mathematical genius is often found in the very young, and so it was with young Turing. He solved advance problems in 1927 without ever having studied even elementary calculus. Next, aged 16, he encountered Albert Einstein's work. Not only did he grasp it, but he extrapolated Einstein's questioning of Newton's laws of motion. In short he was a genius happy and productive in the company of those with the highest human intelligence, who in turn welcomed him as a worthy member of their rare and astonishing ilk. And as his colleagues in intellect esteemed him, so he ascended... First-class honors graduate in mathematics, King's College, Cambridge, 1935; elected Fellow of King's College, in 1935 at the startlingly young age of 22; PhD in mathematics Princeton University,1938. Thus he demonstrated his mastery of his chosen subjects in what came to be called artificial intelligence and computer science... and as a cryptanalyst at the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Britain's code breaking center. The Germans never knew what hit them. Enter Winston Churchill. Of course matters were not so simple as all that; they never are. Turing showed up at GC & CS the first full day of war, September 4, 1939, only to discover the immemorial ways in which the British go to battle, namely with disorganization, inefficiency, and muddle from top to bottom. Thus the best brains in the world twiddled their thumbs at Bletchley Park whilst the lesser men who commanded bumbled away the precious days that were needed to defend against the realm's most dangerous foe. At last Turing couldn't stand it another minute and so against all orders and protocol on October 28,1941 he and his colleagues wrote to Prime Minister Churchill to tell how much they could do if they had the comparative pittance they required for their important work. Think for a moment what would have occurred if Neville Chamberlain had still been prime minister, or, worse, Lord Halifax.Think if this all-important, world-changing letter had been sent through the usual, ineffectual bureaucratic channels. Think what would have happened if there was no Turing and Germany's unbroken codes had never been deciphered or deciphered so late as to be useless. This moment, this letter, and Churchill's immediate response made all the difference. This is what is meant by fate and, perhaps, by God's will. But the letter was written and sent and Churchill did respond, at once, his reply the very essence of his leadership. "ACTION THIS DAY", he ordered General Ismay. "Make sure they have all they want on extreme priority and report to me that this has been done." On November 18,1941, the chief of the secret service reported to Churchill that every possible measure was underway. And so Turing and company got on with their crucial work breaking the codes that Hitler needed for victory and Britain had to have or risk Armageddon. It was a near run thing... but it was done. Thus did God and Alan Turing save the King. War won, every honor and reward should have rained upon him. Privy Council, peerage of the realm, Order of Merit, the whole bag of tricks, "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you The Right Honorable The Baron Turing of Bletchley Park...." Instead, he was fobbed off with the kind of recognition reserved for pedestrian bureaucrats upon retirement. Why? Because he chose the love of man, not just the love of mankind, and this was adjudged by lesser men to be more important than all his great works combined. Thus instead of honors, he was despised, disdained, dismissed, and ultimately destroyed. The role of Henry Labouchere, MP, hater (1831-1912). Henry Labouchere inherited a large fortune which enabled him to indulge his many prejudices in politics, literature, journalism, and the theatre. Upon first encountering this man you would consider him a citizen of the world, boulevardier, cosmopolitan, amusing, sophisticated. However upon further acquaintance, you would discern not cleverness but condescension, not wit but the whip. He was the master of the barb, the put down, the purposefully hurtful comment, a man who lived to poison and condemn. His particular targets were Jews, especially Jews who didn't know their place and aimed to move up economically and socially. He lashed out, too, and frequently against Queen Victoria and the Royal Family and the Conservative Party and its many failures to recognize his many talents and reward him accordingly. And he loathed the very idea that a man should find love and comfort in the arms of another man. Thus in 1885 he drafted the Labouchere Amendment as a last-minute addition to a Parliamentary Bill that had nothing to do with homosexuality. Without benefit of study, debate, or consideration of any kind, the bill passed and in due course over 50,000 men were charged and convicted of "gross indecency", disgraced, imprisoned, marked for life. The malicious legacy of Henry Labouchere, bigot, bit deep and long. One of its victims was Alan Turing. Here's how it happened. In January, 1952 Turing (39) started a private, consensual relationship with Arnold Murray (19). Turing's house was burgled at this time and Murray fingered one of his acquaintances as the culprit. Turing called in the police and during their questioning admitted his relationship with Murray. Both men were charged with gross indecency under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act (1885). From that moment until the day he died, Turing, the man who had done so much to save so many, found it impossible to save himself. Things rapidly spiralled out of control. His solicitor advised him to enter a guilty plea, though Turing never thought he'd committed any crime. On this basis he was convicted. The great hero of the war was given a choice. He could either go to prison, or be placed on conditional probation and be given synthetic estrogen. He made the terrible decision... continued estrogen treatment for one year... and was rendered impotent, a man no longer. No consideration was given to his war work and service. Could the Nazis have hurt him much more? Of course, Turing's world crashed about him. He lost his security clearance, his job and his access to the cryptograms he had done so much to solve. He had sought love... he received systematic hatred, discrimination, and injury. Alan Turing killed himself by ingesting cyanide, June 7, 1954, aged 41. Envoi. December 24, 2013 Queen Elizabeth II issued a long-overdue pardon to Alan Turing. By any measure, it was too little, too late... not just for Turing but for all the men who had been victimized by the virulent prejudices of Henry Labouchere. Each of these men needs to be pardoned and suitable compensation paid. Britain bumbled into the sordid business of homosexual victimization... it must do far more to right this wrong. As for the music to this article, I have selected "The Lesson" composed by Richard Robbins for the 1987 film score for E.M. Forster's 1913 novel "Maurice". It is beautiful, lyric, edgy, and moving... perfect for the kind of love Turing craved for life. Find it in any search engine now, and if there is prejudice in your heart, let this music wash it away and give you the peace, consolation and solace Alan Turing so wanted and never had. |
