Alan Turing

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Alan Turing

by Elliott & Fry
bromide print, 29 March 1951
6 3/8in. x 4in. (161 mm x 117 mm)
Given by the sitter's mother, Ethel Sara Turing (née Stoney), 1956
Photographs Collection
NPG x27078

On display in Room 27 on Floor 2 at the National Portrait Gallery

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  • Elliott & Fry (active 1863-1962), Photographers. Artist or producer associated with 10997 portraits.

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  • 100 Photographs, 2018, p. 83 Read entry

    One of Britain’s most influential mathematicians and computer scientists, Alan Turing (1912-54) worked throughout the Second World War for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. Known to colleagues as ‘Prof’, Turing was central to the breaking of the German naval cypher, the Enigma. After the war, he joined the National Physical Laboratory where he led the work to develop a large-scale electronic digital computer. In March 1952 Turing was brought to trial for having a sexual relationship with a man. In order to avoid prison, he agreed to take oestrogen injections. His position as a government consultant was ended and his personal life came under scrutiny. On 8 June 1954 Turing was found dead. The inquest ruled suicide by cyanide. This photograph by the London studio Elliott & Fry (active 1863-1962) is one of very few images of Turing.

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  • Rab MacGibbon, National Portrait Gallery: The Collection, p. 96
  • Tinker, Christopher, Speak its Name! - Quotations by and about Gay Men and Women, 2016, p. 123

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Events of 1951back to top

Current affairs

The Conservative Party wins the general election and Winston Churchill returns for a second term as prime minister.

Art and science

On the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain is held as a nationwide celebration of British culture, and as an impetus for post-war regeneration. As well as various art, science and industrial exhibitions and events, a major regeneration project was initiated for the South Bank area of London under the directorship of the architect, Hugh Casson.

International

Libya declares its sovereignty from Italian rule, becoming the first independent state to be created by the UN.
At the Treaty of San Francisco, 48 nations sign a peace treaty with Japan, officially ending the Pacific War - the last battleground of the Second World War.

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