Gordon Brown issues posthumous apology to Bletchley Park codebreaker

By ANDREW PORTER - TELEGRAPH.CO.UK
Added: Thu, 10 Sep 2009 23:00:00 UTC

Thanks to nalfeshnee for the link.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6170089/Gordon-Brown-issues-posthumous-apology-to-Bletchley-Park-codebreaker.html

blank The Prime Minister said Alan Turing was treated âterribly". Mr Brown was responding to a campaign to get a formal apology from the Government. Thousands of people have signed a Downing Street petition.

However a formal apology is not possible as Mr Turing has no known surviving family. Instead Mr Brown offered a personal apology.

In an article for the Daily Telegraph, he said: âAlan Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of the Second World War could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war.
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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6170089/Gordon-Brown-issues-posthumous-apology-to-Bletchley-Park-codebreaker.html

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Also a good link on BBC thanks to Megan
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8249792.stm

PM apology after Turing petition

Gordon Brown has said he is sorry for the "appalling" way World War II code-breaker Alan Turing was treated for being gay.

A petition on the No 10 website had called for a posthumous government apology to the computer pioneer.

In 1952 Turing was prosecuted for gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. Two years later he killed himself.

The campaign was the idea of computer scientist John Graham-Cumming.

He was seeking an apology for the way the mathematician was treated after his conviction. He also wrote to the Queen to ask for Turing to be awarded a posthumous knighthood.

The campaign was backed by Ian McEwan, scientist Richard Dawkins and gay-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell. The petition posted on the Downing Street website attracted thousands of signatures.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8249792.stm