Codebreaker Alan Turing to be face of new British banknote

Governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, speaks during the announcement that Second World War code-breaker Alan Turing has been selected to feature on the new 50 pound notes, at the Science and Industry Museum, in Manchester, England on July 15, 2019.  AP

LONDON — Codebreaker and computing pioneer Alan Turing has been chosen as the face of Britain’s new 50 pound note.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said Monday that Turing was “a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.”

Turing’s work cracking Nazi Germany’s secret communications helped win World War II, but after the war he was prosecuted for homosexuality, which was then illegal. He died at age 41 in 1954 after eating an apple laced with cyanide.

Turing received a posthumous royal pardon in 2013.

The UK’s highest-denomination note is the last to be redesigned and switched from paper to more secure and durable polymer. The redesigned 10 pound and 20 pound denominations feature author Jane Austen and artist J.M.W. Turner.

The Turing banknote will enter circulation in 2021. /ee