Alan Turing To Feature On New £50 Note
15 July 2019, 12:28 | Updated: 15 July 2019, 17:38
Bank of England chooses scientist famous for cracking the Enigma code to appear on £50 note.
Bank of England governor Mark Carney has announced that Alan Turing will appear on the new £50 note.
The mathematician, who cracked the wartime Enigma code, was chosen from a list of almost 1000 scientists, submitted by the public.
“Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today," Mr Carney said.
"As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, Alan Turing’s contributions were far ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.”
Mr Turing worked at Bletchley Park code and cypher centre in the second world war. His greatest achievement was developing the Bombe, a machine which from late 1940 was able to de-code all messages sent by the Enigma machines.
Due to his homosexuality which was a crime in his lifetime, Mr Turing's achievements were never fully recognised. He was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts and endured chemical castration treatment with DES as an alternative to prison.
Benedict Cumberbatch starred as Alan Turing in the 2014 biographical film The Imitation Game.
The new Bank of England note, which will be made of polymer, will go into circulation in 2021.
The £50 is the least used note in daily transactions, although figures from the Bank of England show that 344 million £50 notes are still in circulation.
