He brought Bayesian statistics and cryptographic genius to Bletchley Park and in so doing is credited with having played a big role in ending the Second World War.
As a schoolboy, however, his teachers were slow to recognise his talents: they thought that although he showed “distinct promise” in mathematics, his ideas in physics were “vague” and messily explained.
Alan Turing’s report card from Sherborne School in the Dorset market town is to be put on show as part of a new Codebreakers and Groundbreakers exhibition.
Donald Eperson, his mathematics master, thought that his Higher Certificate papers showed talent but commented that “he must realise that ability to put a neat & tidy solution on paper — intelligible and legible — is necessary for a