Figure 1.--A 'Times' photographer caught Alan and three friends by chance at Waterloo Station in London, probanly in 1925. Alan is the boy with the jam jar. Gis friends are Robin and John Wainwright anf Hugh Highet. They are apparently on their way back to their prep school--Hazelhurst in Sussex. This was just before Alan entered his pyblic school--Sherborne. We do not know much about his experiences at Hazelhurst. We do know he had a lot of trouble at Sherborne. The masters there were not at all impressed with him.

The Turings were a prosperous family, not Rich but they had means. His parents could aford to send him to private schools. They first enrolled Alan at St. Michael's, a day school in St Leonards-on-Sea when he was 6 years old (1918). The headmistress immediately recognised his academic abilities, but we know nothing more about his school time there. Alan when he was 10 years old began at a preparatory boarding school in Sussex , Hazelhurst (1922). We do not know much about his expereinces there. From an early point he seems at time to have disappeared into a world of thought. A drawing shows hom watching daisies grow while he was susposed to be playing hockey which would not have endeared him to the games master. A Times photgrapher captured him and and friends at Waterloo Station (figure 1). The photigraph was taken about 1925. He would have been about 12 years old. Turing next enrted the Sherborne School in Dorset at the age of 13 (1926) . It was a public (elite private boarding) school. The first day of term fell on the 1926 General Strike in Britain. That mean there was transport problems and Dorset is in the west of England. Alan was so determined to attend that he rode his bicycle unaccompanied more than 60 miles (97 km) from Southampton all the way to Sherborne. He stopped overnight at an inn. Despite his enthusiam, Sherborne was not a good fit for him. We are not sure why his parents chose it. Perhaps his father attended the school. There were public schools that had modern programs including science. Sherborne and many other traditional schools emphasized the classics and gave little or no impotance to science and Alan was paricularly interested in math and science. This caused problems because he neglectd some of the assignents that did not interest him which was quite a few of them. The headmaster wrote to his parents soon after he arrived, "I hope he will not fall between two stools. If he is to stay at public school, he must aim at becoming educated. If he is to be solely a Scientific Specialist, he is wasting his time at a public school". He was at the bottom of the class in many subjects. Latin and religion seem to have been his orst subjects. His teachers complined about his handwriting and sloppy work. Turing shined in the assignments that appealed to him, but did not impress his science teacher. His grsp of science was remarkable, especially given the fact that he was still a secondary school student. Only a year after arriving at Sherborne and without any knowledge of calculus, he began solving advanced problens (1927). Turing while still at Sherborn encountered Albert Einstein's work. Not from his teachrs who would have understood it, but his grandfather gave him a copy of Einstein's semi-popular book on the theory of relativity (Christmas 1927). He not only immediately grasped it, but he deduced Einstein's questioning of Newton's laws of motion from a text in which this was not clearly explained. Alan's life suddenly changed (1928). He was allowed to enter the sixth form of Sherborne School and to at last specialise in mathematics and science. In the Science classes he met Christopher Morcom, whobsharedc his interest in math and science. Cristopher apparently was Turing's 'first love'. Their relationship ended after only a few years. Christopher died as a result complications from bovine tuberculosis contracted after drinking infected cow's milk (1930). The tragedy shattered Turing's religious faith and he became an atheist. Turing came to see all phenomena, including the workings of the mind, were materialistic. Turing despite his chereked academic career won a scholarship to King's College, University of Cambridge (1931). We asume he won a competitive exam. Finally he could focus on science and math and his capbilities were fully recognized (1931-34). His disertation proving the central limit theorem, was so impressive that Turing was elected a fellow at the school upon graduation. One of his most impresive works was a paper, "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" (1936). He described the idea of a universal machine (later called the 'Universal Turing Machine' and later the 'Turing machine') that could compute anything which is computable. It is often said that the central idea of the computer which would remake modern society are based on Turing’s paper. This does not mean digital technology, but the basic idea of computing. Turing continued his studies in the United States. He studied mathematics and cryptology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey where he received his Ph.D. (1938).

St. Michael (1918-22)

They first enrolled Alan at St. Michael's, a day school in St Leonards-on-Sea when he was 6 years old (1918). The headmistress immediately recognised his academic abilities, but we know nothing more about his school time there.

Hazelhurst (1922-26)

Alan when he was 10 years old began at a preparatory boarding school in Sussex , Hazelhurst (1922). Preparatory schools prepared boys to enter the Public (elite private boardng) schools. We do not know much about his expereinces there. From an early point he seems at time to have disappeared into a world of thought. A drawing shows hom watching daisies grow while he was susposed to be playing hockey which would not have endeared him to the games master. A Times photgrapher captured him and and friends at Waterloo Station (figure 1). The photgraph was taken about 1925. He would have been about 11-12 years old.

Sherborne School (1926-31)

Alan next enrted the Sherborne School in Dorset at the age of 13 (1926) . It was a public (elite private boarding) school. The first day of term fell on the 1926 General Strike in Britain. That mean there was transport problems and Dorset is in the west of England. Alan was so determined to attend that he rode his bicycle unaccompanied more than 60 miles (97 km) from Southampton all the way to Sherborne. He stopped overnight at an inn. Despite his enthusiam, Sherborne was not a good fit for him. We are not sure why his parents chose it. Perhaps his father attended the school. That was often the reason a Public school was chosen. There were public schools that had modern programs including science. Sherborne and many other traditional schools emphasized the classics and gave little or no impotance to science and Alan was paricularly interested in math and science. This caused problems because he neglectd some of the assignents that did not interest him which was quite a few of them. The headmaster wrote to his parents soon after he arrived, "I hope he will not fall between two stools. If he is to stay at public school, he must aim at becoming educated. If he is to be solely a Scientific Specialist, he is wasting his time at a public school". He was at the bottom of the class in many subjects. Latin and religion seem to have been his orst subjects. His teachers complined about his handwriting and sloppy work. Turing shined in the assignments that appealed to him, but did not impress his science teacher. His grsp of science was remarkable, especially given the fact that he was still a secondary school student. Only a year after arriving at Sherborne and without any knowledge of calculus, he began solving advanced problens (1927). Turing while still at Sherborn encountered Albert Einstein's work. Not from his teachrs who would have understood it, but his grandfather gave him a copy of Einstein's semi-popular book on the theory of relativity (Christmas 1927). He not only immediately grasped it, but he deduced Einstein's questioning of Newton's laws of motion from a text in which this was not clearly explained. Alan's life suddenly changed (1928). He was allowed to enter the sixth form of Sherborne School and to at last specialise in mathematics and science. In the Science classes he met Christopher Morcom, whobsharedc his interest in math and science. Cristopher apparently was Turing's 'first love'. Their relationship ended after only a few years. Christopher died as a result complications from bovine tuberculosis contracted after drinking infected cow's milk (1930). The tragedy shattered Turing's religious faith and he became an atheist. Turing came to see all phenomena, including the workings of the mind, were materialistic.

Cambridge University (1931-34)

Turing despite his chereked academic career won a scholarship to King's College, University of Cambridge (1931). We asume he won a competitive exam. Finally he could focus on science and math and his capbilities were fully recognized (1931-34). His disertation proving the central limit theorem, was so impressive that Turing was elected a fellow at the school upon graduation. One of his most impresive works was a paper, "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem" (1936). He described the idea of a universal machine (later called the 'Universal Turing Machine' and later the 'Turing machine') that could compute anything which is computable. It is often said that the central idea of the computer which would remake modern society are based on Turing’s paper. This does not mean digital technology, but the basic idea of computing.

Princeton University (193?-38)

Turing continued his studies in the United States. He studied mathematics and cryptology at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey where he received his Ph.D. (1938).

Sources

Hodges, Andrew.

Created: 3:11 AM 1/22/2015
Last updated: 3:11 AM 1/22/2015