This is why flowers have been left at Alan Turing’s memorial

Flowers have appeared in Sackville Gardens to celebrate Alan Turing’s birthday. 

The mathematician and computer scientist who pioneered codebreaking technology during WWII was born on 23rd June 1912 and would have turned 107 on Sunday. 

This is the seventh year that flowers have been left at the site by those who have been inspired by Turing. 

As well as leaving flowers, people have also been making donations to the Special Effects charity which works to help people with disabilities to play video games. 

This year, over 50 bunches of flowers were left and people from across the globe raised over £2,300, the highest figure seen since the idea (now known as Flowers for Turing) began. 

In the past, donations have made by people from Singapore, Mexico and Australia, to name a few. 

The tradition was started by Joe Reddington, an intervention designer, who thought of the idea to leave flowers at the statue as a tribute to Turing and his work. 

Joe, 36, spoke with friends from across the UK who were working in computer science at universities and with a combined effort was able to leave 18 bunches of flowers at the memorial the day before Turing’s birthday. 

As well as leaving flowers, those involved all donated £10 to the Special Effect charity. 

He said the idea ‘snowballed’ and when he returned the next day to check on the flowers, even more had been left. Someone had even added a party hat to the statue. 

Since then, Joe has coordinated donations and flowers around Turing’s birthday every year. 

Flowers for Turing continues to grow and was even featured in an exhibition by Historic England in 2018.

Joe, who lives in London, told the M.E.N: “It taps into the long-held affection that people have for Alan Turing and for the work that he did that was not appreciated in his own lifetime.” 

For more information and to make a donation visit http://www.flowersforturing.equalitytime.co.uk/ 

Who was Alan Turing? 

Before the release of the 2014 Oscar-nominated The Imitation Game, which starred Benedict Cumberbatch, Turing’s work was not widely known outside of the world of mathematics and computer science. 

Turing played a pivotal role in creating the Bombe, a codebreaking computer used at Bletchley Park which helped cracked the German Enigma cyphers. 

Towards the end of his life, Turing was convicted of having a same-sex relationship. 

Despite Turing’s pioneering work during the war, his security clearances were revoked, and he was unable to continue working on codebreaking computers. 

At the age of 41, Turing took his own life by eating an apple laced with cyanide, which is the reason his Sackville Gardens statue can be seen holding a half-eaten apple. 

In 2009, a petition was started calling for Turing’s conviction to be overturned. After years of campaigning 

Turing's conviction was overturned.