Alan Turing to be face of new polymer £50 note
Alan Turing will feature on the design of the new £50 note.
This will be the last of the Bank of England collection to switch from paper to polymer when it enters circulation by the end of 2021, following the £5, £10 and £20.
The mathematician, known for helping crack the Enigma code during WW2 and being one of the founding fathers of computing, was convicted of gross indecency for his relationship with a man in 1953 and was banned from consulting with GCHQ because homosexuals were ineligible for security clearance. Turing, who had agreed to chemical castration as part of his sentence, committed suicide the following year and did not receive a pardon until 2009.
Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England, comments: “Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today. As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, his contributions were far ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.”
The move follows a public consultation process designed to honour an eminent British scientist. The Bank received a total of 227,299 nominations, covering 989 eligible characters. These were narrowed down to a shortlist of 12, with Carney making the final choice.