Sir Dermot Turing Decodes Uncle Alan Turing at Lambda Archives

Lambda Archives of San Diego is partnering with the San Diego Biomedical Research Institute will host Sir Dermot Turing for a community discussion and screening of the Oscar-winning film, The Imitation Game on Thursday, October 27, 2016 at 7:00 p.m., LandMark Hillcrest Cinema, 3965 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92103. Tickets are $20 and available via at sirdermot.EventBrite.com.

Sir Dermot is a Trustee of Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire (UK) and author of Prof: Alan Turing Decoded, a biography of his uncle Alan Turing (1912-1954). Alan Turing was one of Bletchley Park's leading cryptanalysts and a founder of the science of Artificial Intelligence whose story was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in the movie.

Alan Turing led the team that decoded the German's "Enigma" that is credited with ending World War II an estimated two to three years early and sparing 14 to 21 million lives. In 1952, he was convicted of gross indecency after admitting a sexual relationship with a man. He was given experimental chemical castration as a "treatment." He died of cyanide poisoning in 1954, aged 41. In 2013, Queen Elizabeth II granted Alan Turing a posthumous pardon under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy.

Sir Dermot was educated at Sherborne and King's College, Cambridge. After completing his DPhil (PhD) in Genetics at New College, Oxford, Sir Dermot moved into the legal profession, working first for Her Majesty's Treasury Solicitor's Department and then for Clifford Chance.

"We are glad to have the opportunity to work with the Biomedical Research Institute for this special event," said Walter Meyer, Lambda Archives manager. "We are always happy to work with other San Diego groups, but especially so in this case to learn more about Alan Turing who has been a hero to the LGBTQ community, but also a martyr in a sense that the mores and laws of the times drove him to an early death, wasting one of the great minds of the 20th Century. Winston Churchill said Turing made the single biggest contribution to the Allied war effort. It makes one wonder what else Turing could have accomplished if his the harassment he experienced because of his homosexuality hadn't ruined his life."

Sir Dermot Turing will lead a discussion of his uncle's life and work following the screening.

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