Today, I am thankful for who demonstrate their vision and resolve through their public service.
I’m haunted by the stories I’ve read recounting the blitzkrieg bombing that Londoners endured from the ruthless German air brigade during the early years of World War II. Night after night during a 6-month stretch between September 1940 and March 1941, the city of London sustained significant damage to its buildings, factories, and other support facilities, as the Nazis tried desperately to break the spirits of the British people. As Brits huddled into the basements of their flats, Underground tube stations, and other designated shelters, the resolve of the British people paradoxically grew.
Why? Well, the Brits learned to keep calm and carry on.
In the months leading up to these attacks, the government of the United Kingdom started a campaign to issue a motivational poster to raise the morale of the British public, as they approached their daunting entry into World War II. Evocative of the unemotional resolve of the stoic Brits whose ‘stiff upper lip’ mentality had helped them brave many political storms, a prior World War, and even their dreary weather, the poster was not elaborate; in fact, it depicted a small picture of the royal crown and 5 simple, rhyming words: Keep Calm and Carry On.
As the war progressed, the steadfast resolve and astute ingenuity of England’s citizenry would alter the course of the war. Today, I wanted to share the beguiling account of a brilliant scientist, who when he was born on this day (June 23), 1912, helped stem the tide in favor of the Allied forces. As a child, Alan Mathison Turing saw his share of misery as a young boy growing up in London during the Great War. As his father was in the civil service, he learned the importance of public duty at an early age. His parents’ travels meant that Alan was frequently left to the endearing care of a retired Army couple, from whom he gained a great appreciation of mathematics and engineering. He expanded his interested in the STEM discipline at a young age, first at the renowned Sherborne School in southwest England (much to the chagrin of the classics headmaster) and subsequently at King’s College in Cambridge (where he was recognized as a fellow in mathematics in 1934). In the years leading up to Word War II, he published and presented papers focused on the idea of a computing machine capable of any mathematical computation using predefined algorithms; his ‘universal computing machine’ was the precursor of the modern computer. Thereafter, he received an advanced degree in mathematics and cryptology from Princeton University before returning home to Cambridge to join the Government Code & Cypher Group (GCCS). When war struck in 1940, Turing would become a leading scientist at the GCCS wartime station in Bletchley Park. While there, his breakthroughs in cryptanalysis led to the development of the Christopher bombe, a device that could rapidly decipher the ever-changing Enigma signals that Nazi Germany was sending to its commands. As the bombes intercepted code messages one by one, the British intelligence and its Allied forces could outmaneuver the Nazi command. The work Turing and his colleagues led at GCCS are reported to have shortened the war by more than 24 months, ultimately saving more than 14 million lives.
After the war, Turing worked at the National Physics Laboratory where he developed the blueprint for the first computer with stored programs. He also spent time at the University of Manchester where he wrote and spoke on computer intelligence design, the forerunner of artificial intelligence. Despite all Turning did for the United Kingdom, he was arrested in 1952 for admitting his homosexuality, a noted crime at the time. In an effort to avoid incarceration, he acquiesced to chemical castration using hormonal therapy, rendering him impotent. Sadly, in 1954, Turing took his own life by cyanide ingestion.
In 2009, the British government issued a formal apology. In 2013, a royal pardon was issued by Queen Elizabeth II to Alan Turing, and this absolution was broadened to all gay and bisexual men in 2016.
On this day where we celebrate National Public Service Day, let’s share our gratitude to all the civil servants who publicly serve our nations. As a nation, we should never forget that those who serve at the honor of our governments do so willingly. Alan Turning is a fitting reminder that must always, always appreciate our civil servants for who they are, irrespective of gender, race, creed, sexual orientation, philosophical ideology, and even political affiliation.
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