AGENDA JUNE-JULY 2012 CONTACT US: outnorthwest, The Lesbian & Gay Foundation, Number 5, Richmond Street, Manchester M1 3HF EMAIL: andrew.gilliver@lgf.org.uk TWITTER: @lgfoundation CALL: 0845 3 30 30 30
Text: Rachel Kirkman Interview: Grahame Robertson
been doing there. And he said he took him home and fed him and they spent the night together. So it became not a burglary case to the police. And that was the way it went, that’s how he got caught. He pleaded guilty in court and he said, ‘well I’m only doing what’s natural. It shouldn’t be a crime to do what you want with someone who wants to do the same thing in privacy.’ He was offered a choice. Either prison or hormone treatment. Alan continues, “Now the hormone treatment wasn’t the worst one around but it did cut off all sorts of wanting any sex of any sort. And in the case of Alan he started to grow breasts, which was terrible for his self-esteem. Not only that, our friends over the Atlantic were still paranoid. They insisted that Turing ought to have his credentials taken away, and they would not accept him as a member of any British delegation to anything that was secret or the works they were doing towards the reds and that sort of thing.
Featuring an interview with Alan Edwards. War could have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that he was treated so inhumanely.”
familiar. I thought, ‘There’s that marathon runner Turing’. Now I had no idea what he did as a day job. All I knew was he was an runner, and I’d seen him in Athletics Weekly regularly.”
Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence and this year’s Manchester Pride Parade theme ‘Queer’d Science’ is based upon Alan Turing and his life achievements.
Both Edwards’ and Turings’ paths crossed frequently after that initial meeting. Alan tells us, “I’d occasionally see him, but he didn’t drink. Well I say he didn’t drink, he didn’t go into places like the Union bar. He was more likely to be found having a cup of coffee.”
ONW recently spoke to 81 year old exNaval servicemen Alan Edwards. Edwards knew Alan Turning and here, he recalls his first meeting with the genius. “I met him on a Friday evening in February1950 for the first time at the ‘happy hunting ground’ on Oxford Road. By the bridge. It’s the most photographed bridge in Manchester, and had the most notorious cottage underneath it. I was sat there and this smartly dressed person, was there. I thought his face looked
Edwards also shares his memories of the final years of Alan Turing’s life. He tells us, “Alan, got clobbered because he reported a burglary. He’d met this guy Arnold in the happy hunting ground. He was a 19 year old lad. A friend of mine said he had a feeling Arnold had something to do with it. He may have told a friend of his that he was going to this ‘posh fellas house’. Alan reported it to the police and the police found the culprit. They asked what Arnold had
“So that was one chunk of his life gone. That he could no longer do. And then he fortunately discovered that Scandinavia was a good place to go. Quite close. He used to go on holidays there and it was very open minded. So, he went there for some time.” Things didn’t go well for Alan though, and his trips abroad were soon curtailed. Alan tells ONW, “We assume Alan took his own life, it has never actually been proven whether it was an accident or whether he did it. I’m certain in my own mind that he meant what he did. But he was planning a trip to go to Scandinavia in that Summer and the word got to him that wherever he tried to go he’d be stopped. They took his passport from him. It was such a big loss of freedom. I know how I’d have felt if I’d have been in the same boat. “ Alan Edwards frequently visits the statue of Alan Turing in Sackville Gardens and even has occasional conversations with the statue. He says, “Everyone said that statue in Sackville Gardens doesn’t do him justice. Or isn’t accurate. It makes him look so small. But it does look like him in later life, not long before he died.” www.lgf.org.uk OUTNORTHWEST 09