WWII code-breaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon for a 61-year-old conviction for being gay. Dr Turing, who was pivotal in breaking the Enigma code, was chemically castrated following his conviction in 1952.
A letter sent from Alan Turing to his mathematician friend Norman Routledge shows the codebreaker's worries and "distress" ahead of pleading guilty to gross indecency in 1952.
An excerpt from the communication is printed on the website Letters of Note, citing a Turing biography by Andrew Hodges.
WWII codebreaker whose work may have shortened the war by two years was persecuted for being gay but pardoned after a long campaign.
During WW2, Alan Turing worked at the Government Code and Cypher School where he devised techniques which cracked the German Enigma code.