IP: Unveiling of the Alan Turing statue in Manchester

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2001 18:23:32 +0100
> To: farber () cis upenn edu, History of Computing Issues <SHOTHC-L () SIVM SI EDU>
> From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk>
>
>
> Hi:
>
> A colleague of mine was present when a statue to Alan Turing was unveiled 
> in Manchester a few weeks ago - here is a rather nice report he wrote of 
> the event.
>
> > A couple of hundred people gathered in Sackville Park for
> > the unveiling and accompanying speeches. We were, in the terms of one
> > speaker, an "exotic" crowd, ranging from gay rights activists to
> > distinguished mathematicians. It was a comfy chattering classes liberal
> > elite version of "exotic", if you ask me. Sackville Park is the ideal
> > location, bounded by institutes of higher learning on two sides and
> > Manchester's gay "village" on the other two.
> >
> > The project administrator welcomed everyone and introduced the next speaker,
> > local politician Cllr. Pat Karney, known for his fine nose for publicity.
> > The administrator described him as the main conduit for funding and planning
> > permission from the city council, then stabbed him nicely in the back: "I
> > first met him a year ago, but haven't seen him since, and here he is now
> > ..." :-)
> >
> > Next was Judith Field, lately President of the British Society for the
> > History of Mathematics, who explained Turing's contribution to work on the
> > Entscheidungsproblem with clarity and gusto. She was followed by Andrew
> > Hodges, Turing's principal biographer, who concentrated on his Bletchley and
> > Manchester days. Field and Hodges unveiled the statue.
> >
> > Best of all, for me, was a speech after the unveiling, given by the
> > sculptor, Glyn Hughes. Hughes sought to explain why he had chosen this
> > particular form. First he pointed out that Turing was a national hero, and
> > national heroes are commemorated in bronze. He then pointed out that
> > Manchester is full of statues of national heroes and you don't notice any of
> > them because they are all up on plinths striking heroic poses. If he had put
> > Turing in a similar position, who would notice him? Instead we have this
> > slight, smaller-than-life (?) pensive figure, holding an apple in his right
> > hand. His name, dates and an encrypted message are inscribed on the bench.
> > In common with statues of heroes in ancient times, a sacrifice was made and
> > buried under this statue. In this case, the sculptor's old Amstrad with his
> > data.
> >
> > Pictures of the statue are at
> > http://www.btinternet.com/~glynhughes/turing.htm. Pictures of the unveiling
> > are at http://www.turing.org.uk/turing/scrapbook/memorial3.html.
>
> Cheers
>
> Brian Randell
> --
> Dept. of Computing Science, University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne,
> NE1 7RU, UK
> EMAIL = Brian.Randell () newcastle ac uk   PHONE = +44 191 222 7923
> FAX = +44 191 222 8232  URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/~brian.randell/



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