Alan Turing's Legacy

Alan Turing is widely regarded as the father of modern computing and cryptology. His work at Bletchley Park is credited with shortening the Second World War and saving millions of lives, and his post-war thinking laid much of the groundwork for the digital world we live in today.

Yet for most of his life, his achievements went largely unrecognised and he was persecuted for who he was, dying before the country he had done so much to protect could properly honour him. A posthumous royal pardon in 2013 went some way to acknowledging that injustice.

The Turing Project exists to make sure his story, the brilliance and the injustice alike, is never forgotten, and to turn his legacy into something living: a place of curiosity, invention and second chances for the young people who come after him.

History Overview

1926 - Turing arrives at Sherborne

Aged 14, Alan Turing begins at Sherborne School. His unconventional approach did not always fit traditional education, but his exceptional curiosity for mathematics and science was already becoming clear. Sherborne would be a formative chapter in the life of one of the twentieth century’s greatest minds.

1930 - A friendship that shaped his thinking

While at Sherborne, Turing forms a close friendship with fellow pupil Christopher Morcom, who shares his passion for science and mathematics. Morcom’s sudden death in 1930 affects Turing profoundly and prompts him to think deeply about the nature of mind, matter and consciousness — questions that would echo throughout his later work.

1936 - The idea of the universal computer

Turing develops the concept now known as the Turing machine and completes his landmark work On Computable Numbers. His deceptively simple theoretical machine establishes fundamental ideas about what computation means and becomes one of the foundations of modern computer science.

1939 - Turing arrives at Bletchley Park

On 4 September 1939, the day after Britain declares war on Germany, Turing reports to Bletchley Park. His ideas help develop the Bombe used in the attack on Enigma, and he later leads the team in Hut 8 working against German naval communications.

1950 - Can machines think?

Turing publishes Computing Machinery and Intelligence, asking one of the defining questions of the modern age: can machines think? He proposes what became known as the Turing Test, helping lay the intellectual foundations for artificial intelligence.

1954 - A life cut short, a legacy just beginning

Alan Turing dies on 7 June 1954, aged just 41. Two years earlier he had been prosecuted for homosexuality and subjected to grossly unjust treatment by the country he had helped protect. His influence, however, would only grow: across computing, artificial intelligence, mathematics and our understanding of the natural world.

2026 - Turing returns to Sherborne

One hundred years after Alan Turing first arrived at Sherborne School, his legacy becomes the inspiration for a new chapter. The Turing Project sets out to create a permanent centre for education, enterprise and innovation — not simply remembering Turing's achievements, but giving a new generation the opportunity to follow their curiosity wherever it leads.

1930, Alan Turing, Westcott House, Sherborne

Turing History

Alan Turing began his education at Sherborne School in 1926, arriving as a shy, unconventional boy with an extraordinary mind for mathematics.

During the Second World War, he was central to the codebreaking effort at Bletchley Park, where his work on the Enigma cipher is widely credited with shortening the war by an estimated two years and saving countless lives.

After the war, Turing turned his attention to the emerging field of computing, developing ideas that would go on to define modern computer science and artificial intelligence, including what we now know as the Turing Test.

Despite this, he was prosecuted in 1952 for his sexuality under laws of the time and died in 1954. In 2013 he received a posthumous royal pardon, and today he is celebrated as one of the most influential scientific minds of the twentieth century.

2026 marks 100 years since Alan Turing first arrived at Sherborne School, the starting point for everything that followed.

Alan Turing Conference

Alan Turing