Speaker Honours Alan Turing
28 October 2013 (updated on 28 October 2013)
On 15 October 2013, Speaker of the House of Commons Rt Hon. John Bercow MP presented the "Attitude Icon Award for Outstanding Achievement" to Alan Turing's nieces Inagh Payne and Janet Robinson at the Attitude Awards ceremony staged at the Royal Courts of Justice.
The computer scientist Alan Turing committed suicide in 1954, after being prosecuted for homosexuality he was imprisoned and chemically castrated in 1952.
In September 2009, Prime Minister Gordon Brown had made a public apology on behalf of the Government for "the appalling way he was treated."
Rt Hon. John Bercow MP, said:
“Honouring Alan Turing cannot turn the clock back. It is too late for that. But what Attitude magazine is keen to do, and I am proud to be its front man for the purpose, is publicly to honour this man, this gay man, this brilliant man, who saved our country, a hero of global proportions to whom every single one of us owes so much.”
The award highlights the achievements of Alan Turing during World War 2, working at the Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking centre. Experts have said Turing's work shortened the Second World War by two years.