Alan Turing

Turing arguably made a greater contribution to defeating the Nazis than Eisenhower or Churchill. Thanks to Turing and his 'Ultra' colleagues at Bletchley Park, allied generals in the field were consistently, over long periods of the war, privy to detailed German plans before the German generals had time to implement them.

It's still amazing to think that the family didn't even know what he did in the war until it came out in the 1970s.

Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I, and we all are for what happened to him. So on behalf of the British Government, and all those who live freely thanks to Alan's work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deserved so much better.

... He was dishonourably persecuted during his life, today let us wipe that national shame clean by honouring him properly.

It was a good thing the authorities hadn't known Turing was a homosexual during the war, because if they had, they would have fired him – and we would have lost.

Uncle Alan was very, very kind, very generous, untidy, rather unkempt... but he was always very generous and used to give us lovely presents....he was a very deserving person. He was very, very kind, very truthful and quiet and unassuming. I think he was somebody special.

It [a Teddy Bear] was called Porgy. He bought it for himself when he was an adult, and it used to sit in the chair when he was at Cambridge. He used to practise his lectures in front of Porgy.

The fact remains that everyone who taps at a keyboard, opening a spreadsheet or a word-processing program, is working on an incarnation of a Turing machine.

It is atrocious that we don't recognize this man and the only way to do so is to apologize to him. This man was a national treasure and we hounded him to his death... I'm looking for an apology from the British government because that's where I think the wrong was done. But Turing is clearly someone of international stature.

The whole thinking process is still rather mysterious to us, but I believe that the attempt to make a thinking machine will help us greatly in finding out how we think ourselves.