Alan Turing's Legacy Celebrated 100 Years After His School Days

One hundred years ago, a 13-year-old boy named Alan Turing arrived at Sherborne School in Dorset, England. He would grow up to become one of the greatest scientists Britain has ever produced. Today, people are gathering at his old school to celebrate what he achieved and to inspire a new generation of young thinkers.

Turing started at Sherborne in 1926, but getting there was already an adventure. A major workers' strike had shut down trains all across the country. Rather than give up, Turing cycled more than 60 miles from Southampton to Dorset all by himself, arriving just one day late. Dr. David Wild, head of computer science at Sherborne School, said Turing 'gained immediate notoriety for his great virtuosity in arriving here as a 13-year-old boy on his own steam.'

You might expect a future genius to impress his teachers right away, but Turing did not. His old school reports show that teachers did not always see how talented he was. When he was 14, one report said his mathematics was 'not very good.' Dr. Wild says this is true of many young people — they just haven't discovered what they are good at yet.

During World War Two, Turing did work that helped change the course of history. He was part of a secret team of codebreakers at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. Their job was to crack secret messages sent by the German military using a complex coding machine called the Enigma. Turing helped design a machine called the Bombe, which could unlock those coded messages. Alastair Poulain of the Turing Project says this work saved between 14 and 21 million lives.

In 1936, Turing came up with the idea of a theoretical machine that could follow instructions to carry out calculations. This idea helped lay the groundwork for modern computer science. After the war, he worked on designs for early electronic computers and began asking a bold question: could machines think? In 1950, he proposed the Turing Test, which asked whether a machine could hold a conversation so well that a human couldn't tell the difference.

Sadly, Turing faced serious injustice because of who he was. Being gay was illegal in Britain at the time, and in 1952 he was convicted and forced to undergo a painful hormonal treatment. He died in 1954 at age 41, and an inquest ruled his death a suicide. It was not until 2013 that he received a royal pardon, after the British government issued an official apology in 2009.

Now, people in Sherborne want to make sure Turing's story is never forgotten. Plans are underway for a new center dedicated to his legacy, including a museum and spaces for young people to explore AI and new technologies. Sir Christopher Coville, who leads the Turing Project, said the country needs more scientists and technologists. Fundraising has already begun for the planning and design stage of the center.

Turing's nephew, Dermot Turing, is among those supporting the project. He believes his uncle would have fully backed an educational center like this one. Dermot also urged schools, parents, and students to look for hidden talents in young people — just as Turing's own talents were not spotted right away. 'I think it's really important for the future of the country's tech industries that we encourage schools and students and parents to tease out the talents that their kids might have in these technical areas,' he said.