London: Noted British Computer Scientist and Hacker Alan Turing, who is credited for developing the famous Turing Test, has received general Pardon from British Queen Elizabeth II. Turing was charged for Homosexuality after World War II and was later subjected to Chemical Castration in 1952. Unlike today, Homosexuality was a crime in Britain in those days and Turing chose Castration to avoid Prison. He committed Suicide two years after being convicted for being Gay.
Alan Turing at the Time of election to Fellowship of the Royal Society
A December 24 statement by British Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said “Dr. Turing deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science. A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man.”
On 10 September 2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way he was treated
Turing is credited for giving a  formalisation of the concepts of “algorithm” and “computation” with his Turing machine, which can be considered a model of a general purpose computer. Turing is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence
During the Second World War, Turing worked for the Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS) at Bletchley Park, Britain’s codebreaking centre. He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers.
In January 1952, Turing started a relationship with Arnold Murray, a 19-year-old man. Turing met Murray just before Christmas outside the Regal Cinema when walking down Manchester’s Oxford Road and had invited him to lunch.
On 23 January Turing’s house was burgled. Murray told Turing that the burglar was an acquaintance of his, and Turing reported the crime to the police. During the investigation he acknowledged a sexual relationship with Murray. Homosexual acts were criminal offences in the United Kingdom at that time, and both men were charged with gross indecency under Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885.
Initial committal proceedings for the trial occurred on 27 February, where Turing’s solicitor “reserved his defence”. Later, convinced by the advice of his brother and other lawyers, Turing entered a plea of “guilty”, in spite of the fact that he felt no remorse or guilt for having committed acts of homosexuality. Turing was convicted and given a choice between imprisonment and probation, which would be conditional on his agreement to undergo hormonal treatment designed to reduce libido. He accepted the option of treatment via injections of stilboestrol, a synthetic oestrogen; this treatment was continued for the course of one year. The treatment rendered Turing impotent and caused gynaecomastia.
On 8 June 1954, Turing’s cleaner found him dead. He had died the previous day. A post-mortem examination established that the cause of death was cyanide poisoning. When his body was discovered, an apple lay half-eaten beside his bed, and although the apple was not tested for cyanide.
The prestigious A.M. Turing Award — sometimes called the “Nobel Prize” of Computing — was named after Turing.
(The Article on English Wikipedia titled ‘Alan Turing‘ at the publication time of this report contributed to this.)