There is a growing campaign for computer scientist Alan Turing to feature on a new £50 note in the UK, with members of the LGBTIQ+ community noting his incredible contribution to England during World War II.
The push came after Bank of England Governor Mark Carney 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 bank note.
Turing is credited as having helped to crack a number of Nazi codes, including Enigma, during World War II - bringing the war to an end earlier than expected. However, years later authorities discovered Turing's homosexuality and sent him to prison, where he was chemically castrated.
His story was told on the big screen in 2014 with Benedict Cumberbatch playing Turing in The Imitation Game.
Aside from Turing, front-runners for the new note include mathematician Ada Lovelace and physicist Stephen Hawking.
“We’d be very happy to see Alan Turing placed on the £50 note," Richy Thompson, Director of Public Affairs and Policy at Humanists UK, said in an interview with .
Thompson continued: “Turing was a humanist who helped save the UK during World War II and invented modern computer technology as we know it, but the UK still subjected him to harsh, homophobic treatment and attempted to ‘cure’ him of his sexuality through chemical castration."
"That terrible treatment can never be undone, but the new £50 note presents an opportunity for the UK to honour one of its greatest heroes.”
