New £50 note design sees Alan Turing become first LGBT person on a UK banknote

He was convicted for his relationship with a man and chemically castrated as punishment but now the legacy of the "father of computer science" has been cemented.

Alan Turing, the Second World War hero and pioneer of artificial intelligence, has been unveiled as the new face of the £50 note.

Mr Turing was whittled down from 989 nominees and beat out 11 shortlisted characters including Stephen Hawking and Ada Lovelace.

Mr Turing was announced as the face of the new banknote at a ceremony in Manchester this morning.

Announcing the London-born scientist as the face on the new £50 note, Mark Carney, the governor of the Bank of England, said: “Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today.

"As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as a war hero, Alan Turing’s contributions were far ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand."

Following a public appeal for eminent scientists to front the new bank note, the bank received 227,299 nominations which it narrowed down to 989 eligible persons who the advisory committee determined were real, deceased people who had contributed to science.

The committee, which featured four experts in the field of science, then shortened the list to 12 prospective scientists from which Mr Turing was selected by the governor of the bank.

Mr Turing, who was born in Maida Vale in June 1912, provided the theoretical underpinnings for the modern computer. During the Second World War, he was instrumental in breaking German enigma code, leading to the allied victory over Nazi Germany.

He was convicted of gross indecency for his relationship with a man in 1952 and chemically castrated as punishment.

The conviction resulted in the loss of his security clearance, preventing him from continuing his work with the forerunner to GCHQ,  the GC&C.

He died in 1954 by cyanide poisoning.

In 2013, Mr Turing received a posthumous pardon by the Queen.

The new polymer note is expected to enter circulation at the end of 2021. It features a photo of Mr Turing taken in 1951 by Elliott & Fry, which is part of the Photographs Collection at the National Portrait Gallery, and mathematical formulae from one of his most important papers penned in 1936.