Full name: Alan Mathison Turing Born: 23rd June 1912 Invention/Achievement: Breaking the Enigma Code/Developing computer science Date of introduction/Achievement: During World War II (1939-1945) Died: 7th June 1954)

It has been estimated that the code breaking work of Alan Turing and his colleagues at Bletchley Park may have shortened World War II by between two and four years.  Certainly, without the intelligence this provided it is quite possible that Britain and its allies might not have countered the U-boat campaign which threatened to cut our maritime supply lines.  

Alan Turing was born in Paddington, London, as the son of an Indian Civil Servant.  From an early age he showed clear signs of his mathematical ability.  After attending Sherborne School, he studied mathematics at King's College Cambridge, gaining a first class degree and in 1935 at the young age of 22 he was made a fellow of King's.  

From September 1938 Turing worked part time with GC&CS, the government code-breaking organisation.  In 1939 the Polish Cipher Bureau had provided GC&CS with details of the German Enigma coding machine, together with details of their decoding techniques.

Turing and a Colleague, Dilly Knox, worked to develop a more robust decryption method.  Immediately following the outbreak of war on 4^th September 1939, Turing reported to Bletchley Park, the wartime HQ of GC&CS.  During his time there he made several crypt analytical advances that significantly contributed to the success of the team's success.  

Two papers that Turing wrote on the subject of the maths of code-breaking, entitled "Report on the applications of probability to cryptography" and "Paper on statistics of repetitions", were considered of such value that they were not released into the public domain until 2012.  

Shortly after arriving at Bletchley Park, Turing had started designing an electromechanical device - called the bombe - to assist with deciphering Enigma transmissions.  This led Turing into the new field of computer science, in which he made major advances.  

Following the war, while working at the National Physical Laboratory, he designed ACE, one of the first stored program computers.  In 1948 he joined the Computing Laboratory at Manchester University and helped develop the innovative series of Manchester Computers.

 Alan Turing was also a top class distance runner, in line for a place at the 1948 Olympics until sidelined by injury.  

Turing died, by accidental cyanide poisoning or suicide, on 7^th June 1954.