Childhood

They say the child is the father of the man and that seems to have been true of Alan Mathison Turing. For long periods he was separated from his parents, especially his father. Later in life he was a confirmed solitary, one with whom many found it difficult to get along. Turing was born a Londoner, in Paddington, on June 23, 1912. His mother, formerly Ethel Stoney, was a distant relative of George Johnstone Stoney, the Irish physicist who gave the electron its name. Alan's father, John Mathison Turing, served the Empire through the Indian Civil Service. For the first decade of his life Alan and his elder brother, another John, stayed in England whilst their parents lived in India, except for their often long visits to England. Much of the time the boys were farmed out to a retired Army couple at St Leonards on Sea near Brighton.

Alan Turing has been described as naughty, wilful and cheeky boy. Apart from being par for most boys it may also have been an outworking of his high intelligence, which was recognized quite early. Once on a family holiday in Scotland he noted the flight paths taken by bees, plotted the intersection and bravely raided the nest for honey. He was also said to be a jolly boy and to have a high integrity to which he held strictly in adulthood. Confidences were rigidly respected. There may have been a hint of his future mathematical abilities in his habit at one time of stopping at every lamp post to read the serial number.

Throughout his life he appears to have been untidy. As a child, he found writing difficult and accompanied it with many ink little about his personal appearance. Colleagues remember the holes in his jacket, the old tie he used as a belt, and the bright red cord that served as a pair of braces long after the day when his real braces broke.

When Alan was about 12 years old his father resigned from the Indian Civil Service and settled for an early retirement in France, at Dinard in Brittany. School French lessons suddenly acquired a purpose. So far he had been educated by his mother, at a private day school, and then at a preparatory school near Tunbridge Weils. He was particularly interested in maps and formulae.

For public school it was decided that he should go to Sherborne in Dorset. When he arrived at Southampton from France in 1926 there were no trains because of the General Strike. He set out on his bicycle and arrived on the second day. Later in life he rejected an offer of an official car in favour of his bike. Cycling and running were to be his great loves. He learned to run, so he said, by avoiding the ball on the hockey pitch. But for an injury, he might have qualified for the British marathon team in the 1948 Olympic Games: his best time was only 17 minutes behind the Olympic champion.

At Sherborne his ability at mathematics developed, as did his passion for science. He took an avid interest in astronomy to which he was introduced by a fellow student with whom he developed an intense, but doomed, friendship. Tuberculosis killed his friend in 1930. But Sherborne fulfilled its purpose and in 1931 he progressed to King's College, Cambridge - Britain's Mecca for a mathe­matician. Turing gained his degree in mathematics with distinction in 1934 and was awarded a research studentship of £200.

This was followed in 1935, at the tender age of 22, by a coveted Fellowship at £300. At last he had the academic freedom to pursue his ideas.