Belated apology for maltreated British war hero

British PM Gordon Brown has apologised for Britain's disgraceful treatment of Alan Turing, a man whose name ought to be widely-known as a war hero whose codebreaking work helped the Allies win World War II and as one of the inventors of the computer.

Unfortunately for Turning, aside from being a genius and patriot he was also gay, and suffered the indignity of a gross indecency charge and undergoing 'chemical castration' as an alternative to prison. The side effect of this treatment was that he grew breasts. He later committed suicide by eating a cyanide-laced apple.

I admit I had never heard of Alan Turing until I read about his sad case in Richard Dawkins' book The God Delusion. It is nothing short of disgraceful how this man was treated by a country that should have held him up as a hero and probably should have knighted him. The apology is long overdue but at least it has now been made. Good on Brown for making it.