Died aged 41 in Wilmslow having single-handedly accomplished more things in those 41 years than most generations can even dream of.

Why is he commemorated in Manchester? 

After WW II he joined the Computing Machine Laboratory at the University of Manchester where he helped develop the Manchester Computers: work which included the world’s first stored program computer and the world’s first transistorised computer.

So for anyone reading this on a computer…

But it was for his activities during WWII that he has belatedly been widely recognised: he joined the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park where he played a crucial role (immortalised in the movie The Imitation Game) cracking intercepted German coded messages that enabled the Allies to defeat the Germans in many crucial battles (including the Battle of the Atlantic).

A true genius whose work during WW II directly saved thousands of lives, but how quickly memories fade as only some 7 years later he found himself tried and convicted of homosexuality. Rather than face imprisonment he accepted an alternative sentence of chemical castration (reflecting the 1950’s medical view that homosexuality was a ‘disease’ which could be ‘cured’) where a slow release capsule was implanted in his leg to release oestrogen. At the end of the two year sentence, with the capsule still in his leg, he tried to gouge it out himself with a kitchen knife.

There is some debate about whether his death was suicide or not but his tortured soul passed away shortly afterwards after biting into a cyanide laced apple.

In 2009 Gordon Brown apologised to him and in 2013, 59 years after his death, he was officially pardoned by the Queen. His face appears on the current £50 note. None of which puts the genie back in the bottle.

A brilliant man who met a tragic end. His name and memory live on via the Turing Institute which is based at the British Library.