Born June 23rd 1912.
Died (by eating a poison apple) June 7th 1954.
Did some great stuff in between. Like inventing the concept of a computer, like playing a key role in breaking the German Enigma code during World War 2, like thinking about the meaning of (artificial?) intelligence.
Then he had to go and spoil it all by turning out to be gay. Oh dear!
Lyrics - "Alan Mathison Turing"
Manchester, northern England, June the seventh nineteen fifty four,
He took a bite from a poison apple, they found him dead on the bedroom floor,
So died a quiet hero, a saviour of his country in the Second World War,
Then came the Cold War, and persecution, I guess he couldn't take any more.
Alan Turing, a man of vision, logician, mathematician,
Codebreaker, troublemaker, a revolutionary mind,
He turned the key that opened the door to the world of computing that we still explore,
A world that no-one had seen before, a gift to all of mankind.
A spirit running free,
Hides the wounds that we don't see,
A spirit soaring high,
Seeks the truth we can't deny.
Alan Turing, a victim, of homophobia and post-war fears,
A time of East-West paranoia, he was just another one of those queers,
Gradually intolerance abated, finally his work appreciated,
Eventually a statue created, though we waited too many years.
When you're at your computer today,
Black or white, straight or gay,
Remember the man who showed us the way,
Alan Mathison Turing.
