We're keeping Alan Turing's memory green

01 Mar 2016

Staff joined in planting an apple tree in memory of Alan Turing outside St Peter's House on Monday, 29 February

Organised jointly by St Peter's House, Sustainability and ALLOUT (our LGBT network) and the City Council, the tree-planting ceremony paid tribute to an extraordinary man who crammed into his short life the careers of mathematician, codebreaker, computer scientist and biologist.

Alan Turing is widely regarded as a war hero for his codebreaking work at Bletchley Park, and considered to be the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as a pioneer of developmental biology. He spent the last five years of his life working at the University of Manchester, where he produced some of his most creative, but still little-known, ideas. 

His conviction for gross indecency in 1952, followed two years later by his untimely death (at the age of 42), brought a terrible end to a life packed with achievement. He was given a posthumous royal pardon in December 2013.

After short speeches by Paul Marks-Jones (Equality and Diversity Advisor), Rev Terry Biddington (Chaplaincy Coordinator) and James Hopkins (University Historian and Heritage Manager - pictured with spade), onlookers joined them in planting the tree, a self-pollinating Malus domesticus James Grieve.*

Alan Turing was later toasted with wine, juice and cakes served inside St Peter's House.

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* This tree produces a versatile fruit which can be used (at different stages in its lifecycle) for cooking, eating fresh, juicing and cider-making. Once grown and sold all over Europe, the James Grieve apple cannot tolerate modern supermarket handling and is now grown only in gardens and for direct sale to consumers.