9. Safety in Numbers Words and Music by Kevin Adams
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Alan Turing was perhaps the most famous, mysterious, and tragic of the all the codebreakers at Bletchley Park – the ‘BP’ Boffins[1]. Along with Max Newman and Tommy Flowers, Turing has now been credited as being the father of the modern computer. His genius even then was renowned:
‘We had a mathematical problem connected with probability which none of us could solve, but we were told that Turing was the man who would solve it for us, and he did.’ However, many remembered only his eccentricity: ‘Alan Turing kept his coffee mug chained to a radiator to prevent theft…’ ‘He changed his life savings into silver ingots and buried them in Bletchley woods…’ ‘He was perpetually untidy and would fall into long silences…’ John Bowring worked for the Corps of Signals at nearby Hanslope Park. He too remembers Alan Turing’s bizarre behaviour: ‘He would come over to Hanslope Park from Bletchley every Tuesday… He was positively weird. He dressed in a way that put the average tramp to shame (wearing) his tie to hold his trousers up, and… a piece of rope to tie his voluminous raincoat around him as he cycled along…’ Nevertheless – uniquely - John Bowring also believes he can pinpoint the actual moment when Turing conceived the idea of the modern computer: ‘The lads in the workshop decided that the `Prof` ought to come and see how the other half lived. So they grabbed him on his way into the Park House and frogmarched him down to the workshops. “Now you will see the real work, Prof!” He wore his usual faraway look as he went in. One of the lads picked up a valve and said, “Now Prof, this is what we call a thermionic valve. It’s an electronic device…” He just stood there goggle-eyed, then all of a sudden his face changed. He just sort of went rigid, stared into the middle distance, and still holding this valve in his hand, said “You know, I could make a computer with these.” We think, and I certainly think, that’s where the computer started…’ Sadly, many stories of Turing focused on the tragedy of his death rather than the significance of his achievements. Found guilty of gross indecency in 1952, he was sentenced to a course of oestrogen which caused him to grow breasts. He committed suicide by cyanide poisoning two years later. Social hostility to his sexuality had been prevalent many years before, as one of his colleagues at BP recalled: ‘We used to dine opposite Alan Turing and his `girl-friend`… It was well known that he was gay, but a brilliant chap I suppose.’ The ambiguity of Kevin Adams’ lyric[2] could be said to mirror the ambivalence of Turing’s life: his homosexuality and supreme mental power meant that he was both reviled and revered. But fulfilment, both with sexual partners and with mathematical numbers, was often complicated for him: he was ‘lost in a crowd… I know you’re waiting for me - but I can’t find you.’ [1] All information extracts and reminiscences about ‘BP’ are from Bletchley Park People by Marion Hill, available from www.livingarchive.org.uk [2] The link to the song is on Safety In Numbers | Kevin Adams (bandcamp.com) |
Giant Bombes connected together at Bletchley Park
Hut 3 and Hut 6 – the key code-breaking huts at Bletchley Park
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