Alan Turing: An “Enigma” of a Man
By Srishti Kumar
Alan Mathison Turing. How many you all out there have heard that name before? I would say not many of us, so allow me to expand. Alan Turing was born in London on 23rd June 1912. His father was an employee of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) in a district of the current-day state of Odisha and grandfather (from his mother’s side) was the chief engineer of the Madras Railways. Since both the parents wanted their children to be brought up in Britain, they shifted to London. Alan Turing was a lot of things. His Wikipedia page reads, “Alan Mathison Turing was an English mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher and theoretical biologist.
But, to all those who have heard about him beforehand, would know that he was most known for breaking the Nazi Enigma code, which is considered to be the most difficult and complex code known to man till date. The Nazis would constantly relay messages through the Enigma machine, and while the British could intercept the messages, they could not make any sense out of it. Thus, they had employed an entire unit filled with only the best minds, to attempt to decode the Enigma. Hut 8, was a part of Britain’s code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park, which was responsible for producing Ultra intelligence, and Turing, was a part of this. He had a lot of conflicts with his colleague, one of whom was Hugh Alexander, the de facto of the Hut. However, a few years into the attempt to break the Enigma, Turing’s colleagues began to realize that he was, for the first time, closer to breaking the Code than anyone else ever was, and so Turing soon was made the leader.
The Enigma Machine had a set of rotors that were constantly scrambled to confuse the Allies, and the machine had quintillions of possible settings. One day, Alan noted that every morning the Germans’ U-boat communications included a weather report. This pattern helped them to build a machine, a machine built by Turing which was able to completely decode the Enigma. However, Turing’s job was only half done. His next job was to crack the Tunny Codes, a high-powered cipher, which the Fuhrer (Hitler) used to communicate with his commanders on the field. According to one of Alan Turing’s colleague, cracking this code would allow the Allies to read “what Hitler and his generals were saying to each other over breakfast”. Now that Turing had successfully broken two of the most important German codes, the Allies could plant in false information and run spies throughout the Nazi Circle. In fact, during this time, he also laid out plans for a device, which scientists called the ‘Turing Machine’. This is what is now known to us as a computer.
Although a genius, Alan Turing sadly experienced a very traumatic ending to his life. Turing proposed marriage to Joan Clarke, a fellow colleague at Hut 8, in 1941. However, their engagement was short-lived. A few months into his new relationship, he admitted to his fiancée that he was a homosexual. Apparently, Clarke was unfazed by this revelation and had suspected him of being gay before itself. However, they continued to be close friends even after their engagement was broken off. In fact, Alan relied a lot on Clarke towards the later part of his life when his health was in a much poorer condition. In January 1952, when Turing was 39 years old, he started a relationship with a 19-year-old unemployed man, Arnold Murray. On 23rd January, Alan reported that his house had been burgled, and Murray told him that the burglar and he were acquainted. As the investigation began, Turing admitted that he was in a sexual relationship with Murray. Homosexual acts were criminal offences in the UK at that time and Turing and Murray were charged with “gross indecency” under the British Law. Thus, Turing had to go through a trial. He pleaded guilty and admitted to all the ‘crimes’ committed by him, on the advice of his brother. He had two options now, a two-year imprisonment or probation. The probation was on the condition that Turing would subject himself to ‘medical treatment’. Alan chose the latter and was subjected to injections via which female hormones would be induced in his body (a synthetic oestrogen). This cause breast tissue to be formed in his body and rendered him impotent.
Turing allowed himself to be ‘treated’ for 1 year (which was how long the ‘treatment’ continued), before he committed suicide on 8th June 1954. His housekeeper found him dead with a half-eaten apple lying beside his on his bed. Cyanide poisoning was established to be the cause of his death. Although it is a little bit hazy, as to whether or not Turing committed suicide, most of the facts do conclude the former. The author of his biography the ‘Imitation Game’, states that Turing was very fond of the 1937 Walt Disney movie ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’, especially the scene where the ‘Wicked Queen immerses her apple in the poisonous brew’. People thus believed that Turing was re-enacting this scene, on the day of his death. His mother believed that Turing had accidentally ingested poison and that it was not a case of suicide.
Whatever be the plausible explanation, Alan Turing died on 8th June 1954, aged 41. The fact that the Enigma had been broken in 1941, was not revealed to the world even after the end of the war. This was a government-held secret for more than 50 years, because this was the only leverage that the British had over the Germans. None of the masterminds behind the Allies’ victory in War, were given credit for the millions of lives that they saved, for more than 50 years. The man who decoded the Enigma and various other German codes and the man who shortened the Second War by 2 years and saved the lives of more than 14 million people, lead a very sad and tragic life towards his last few years. His life is yet another testament to the cruelty of humans. Let us remember this man for the genius that he was and all the other infamous members of Hut 8.
Sources Citation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing#Turingery
https://www.biography.com/scientist/alan-turing
For those who want to know more about Alan Turing, the movie ‘The Imitation Game’ is based on him. There is also a book by the same name upon which the movie is based.
This article was originally published on https://itihaastohistory.home.blog/
