Alan Turing Monopoly board unveiled
A special edition Monopoly board commemorating the life of gay codebreaker Alan Turing has been launched by the Bletchley Park Trust.
Turing was infamously persecuted by the UK government because of his sexuality, despite his pioneering intelligence work, which helped Britain defeat the Nazis in World War II.
He died at the age of 41 in 1954.
The new game is based on a hand-drawn board designed more than 60 years ago by the son of Turing’s mentor and on which the mathematician himself played.
William Newman, the son of Turing’s mentor Max Newman, drew the original board around 1950 and played on it with his brother Edward and Turing – who was beaten by the young boy.
The board went missing around 1986 when Mr Newman moved from the family home in Cambridge, but resurfaced last year when the new owners of the property found a box of the original occupant’s belongings.
Mr Newman donated the board to Bletchley Park Museum and has since worked with the trust and Winning Moves, which creates new editions of Monopoly, to design and develop the special game.
Bletchley Park and Cambridge’s Kings College replace the famous Monopoly squares of Mayfair and Park Lane respectively, and the ‘Utilities’ squares is now home instead to the legendary Enigma Machine.
Never before seen pictures of the scientist, donated by the Turing family, have also been included in the game.
The board is initially exclusively available from the Bletchley Park website, and from the museum’s shop.
£10 notes featuring Turing’s face are used instead of the normal £10 Monopoly money; all of which chimes appropriately with the campaign to have Turing’s legacy honored by having his image placed on the real thing.
