After a , computer scientist Alan Turing has been announced as the new face of the Bank of England's £50 note.
When the Bank of England last year announced a public contest to select a member of the scientific community to replace James Watt - a Scottish inventor, mechanical engineer, and chemist - on the new note, members of the LGBTIQ+ community were quick to champion Turing for his contribution to England during World War II.
Turing, who is credited as having helped to crack a number of Nazi codes, including Enigma, during World War II, was sent to prison and chemically castrated after authorities discovered his homosexuality.
His story was adapted for the big screen back in 2014, with Turing brought to life by actor Benedict Cumberbatch inThe Imitation Game.
Following the announcement that Turing had been selected for the honour, Cumberbatch : “I couldn’t think of a more deserving candidate, he was an extraordinary human being.”
Today the LGBTIQ+ community are celebrating that Turing is finally receiving posthumous recognition;
Bank of England governor Mark Carney made the announcement, saying: "Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today."
He continued: "As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as a war hero, Alan Turing's contributions were far-ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand."
However, some commentators also noted the irony of Turing, a gay man, being on the £50 note - a note that is not accepted at some locations across the UK.
According to, other significant scientific figures considered for the note included Mary Anning, Paul Dirac, Rosalind Franklin, William Herschel and Caroline Herschel, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage, Stephen Hawking, James Clerk Maxwell, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Ernest Rutherford and Frederick Sanger.
