Alan Turing, the father of modern computer science, will be honored by appearing on a U.K. banknote. Mr Turing was chosen ahead of many British historical figures to be on the new £50 note. Turing helped Britain and its allies win World War II. He helped to crack the Enigma code the Nazis used to send its messages. He invented a giant computer to do this. The computer saw in the birth of modern computing and the start of artificial intelligence.
Alan Turing was a maths genius. He was born in London in 1912 and graduated from Cambridge University. He created an algorithm-based computing machine. He said: "This is only a foretaste of what is to come, and only the shadow of what is going to be." Despite his key role in ending WWII, he was ill-treated after the war for being homosexual. Being gay was illegal in the UK until 1967. Turing died in 1954, aged 41. Police said it was suicide.