Alan Turing On the new £50 Note
This week it has been announced that British hero Alan Turing is to feature on the new £50 pound note. We wanted to share our thoughts and celebrate Turing. Some of us at 15 Square have often felt sympathy and kinship with Turing.
Alan Turing Is A National Hero With A Sad Past
Despite his loyal and invaluable service during WWII resulting in thousands of lives being saved, Turing was subjected to a society that rejected him. Compounding his homophobic treatment during his life, Turing allegedly complained to a friend about the significance of his own circumcision trauma.
“The solution lies not in any one fact, but in the whole pattern that led up to the event [of his death]”
– Barbone p594
15 Square take male mental health seriously, regardless of the reason that men are giving. We encourage all people to do the same.
We are glad to see that society can turn 180 degrees on social issues, and in such a short time relatively speaking. Today we share in celebrating Turing’s memory and hope that social progress continues.
“Alan told his friend [Fred Clayton] how much he resented having being circumcised, and also of his earliest memories of playing with the gardener’s boy… which he thought had perhaps decided his sexual pattern.”
Alan Turing: the Enigma of Intelligence
– Hodges p77
As some of our members will be aware, the name 15 Square comes from the upper amount of skin tissue missing from a circumcised adult. Coincidentally, this is the size of a modern bank note.
Old Style £50 Note
If you would like to donate a portrait of Alan Turing to 15 Square, you can donate here!
S. Barbone. Reader’s Guide to Lesbian and Gay Studies. Ed. Timothy F. Murphy.
Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn Publishers, 2000
A. Hodges. Alan Turing: The Enigma of Intelligence. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1983
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