Famous codebreaker Turing to feature UK's new 50-pound note

Famous World War II codebreaker Alan Turing is to feature on the new 50-pound bank note, the Bank of England announced Monday.

[Screenshot: China Plus]

The 50-pound note will be the last of the Bank of England collection to switch from paper to polymer when it enters circulation by the end of 2021.

Computer pioneer Turing is famed for his work during the war at Bletchley Park where he cracked German codes in what was to be vital for allied success in the war. After his wartime work, he was pivotal in the development of early computers at the University of Manchester.

Bank of England governor Mark Carney said "Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today."

"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," Carney said.

The Bank of England said Turing have left an impact on both science and society today.

In 1952 Turing was convicted under UK's now abandoned anti-homosexuality laws and later died in what has always considered to be a suicide in 1954, 16 days before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. In 2013, he was given a posthumous royal pardon by Queen Elizabeth for his 1952 conviction for gross indecency.

The decision of featuring Turing on bank note came after a public consultation process designed to honor an eminent British scientist. The Bank of England said it had received 227,299 nominations, covering 989 eligible characters. Turing was chosen from a final shortlist of 12, which also included Mary Anning, Rosalind Franklin, Stephen Hawking and others.