Walter Linsley Meegan.

 

 

Walter Meegan

 

                                                                 Master of Oil Painting

 



1859-1944

 

             Meegan was born in Leeds England and studied at Leeds school of Art where he won a  first

        prize at an early age He travelled extensively, opening a studio on fifth avenue in New York

        where he gained high acclaim

        .

 

The Brooklyn Bridge

 

               He later settled back in England and signed his early works using his wife's maiden name

      "Linsley" He studied with Grimshaw and many of his paintings are highly redolent of the great

        man.

.

Scarborough Harbour.

         

                   Like Grimshaw he built atmosphere into his paintings with an electric combination of
        moonlit night, reflection and activity. It is for these reasons that his work has become
       increasingly collectable both in the United States and The United Kingdom.

 

 

 

Scarborough Quay.

 

 

 

 

 



    Allan Turing.

1912-1954

Allan Turing -Bletchley Park- (Hut 8)

 

                               "The father of computer science."


       “It seems probable that once the machine thinking method had started, it would not take long to outstrip our feeble powers… They would be able to converse with each other to sharpen their wits. At some stage therefore, we should have to expect the machines to take control.”



 "  Alan Turing was born on 23 June, 1912, in London. His father was in the Indian Civil Service and Turing's parents lived in India until his father's retirement in 1926. Turing and his brother stayed with friends and relatives in England. Turing studied mathematics at Cambridge University, and subsequently taught there, working in the burgeoning world of quantum mechanics. It was at Cambridge that he developed the proof which states that automatic computation cannot solve all mathematical problems. This concept, also known as the Turing machine, is considered the basis for the modern theory of computation.

  In 1936, Turing went to Princeton University in America, returning to England in 1938. He began to work secretly part-time for the British cryptanalytic department, the Government Code and Cypher School. On the outbreak of war he took up full-time work at its headquarters, Bletchley Park.

   Here he played a vital role in deciphering the messages encrypted by the German Enigma machine, which provided vital intelligence for the Allies. He took the lead in a team that designed a machine known as a bombe that successfully decoded German messages. He became a well-known and rather eccentric figure at Bletchley.

   After the war, Turing turned his thoughts to the development of a machine that would logically process information. He worked first for the National Physical Laboratory (1945-1948). His plans were dismissed by his colleagues and the lab lost out on being the first to design a digital computer. It is thought that Turing's blueprint would have secured them the honour, as his machine was capable of computation speeds higher than the others. In 1949, he went to Manchester University where he directed the computing laboratory and developed a body of work that helped to form the basis for the field of artificial intelligence. In 1951 he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society.

   In 1952, Turing was arrested and tried for homosexuality, then a criminal offence. To avoid prison, he accepted injections of oestrogen for a year, which were intended to neutralise his libido. In that era, homosexuals were considered a security risk as they were open to blackmail. Turing's security clearance was withdrawn, meaning he could no longer work for GCHQ, the post-war successor to Bletchley Park."

   He committed suicide from cyanide  on 7 June, 1954.
A half-eaten apple was  found by his bed and with his fascination for
the legend of Snow White a connection was formed, as was it was with the Apple computer logo.