At Face Value

March 22, 2008

Alan Turing was the brilliant Cambridge, England, mathematician who masterminded the cracking of the German Enigma code and indeed was the father of the modern computer. But this story from his biography is on a different topic.

Turing conceived a passion for becoming proficient with a rifle, so he enrolled in the infantry section of the Home Guard during the Second World War. To do so, he had to complete a form, and one of the questions on this form was: "Do you understand that by enrolling in the Home Guard you place yourself liable to military law?" Well, Turing, absolutely characteristically, said, "There can be no conceivable advantage in answering this question ‘Yes’", and therefore he answered it ‘No’. And of course he was duly enrolled, because people only look to see that these things are signed at the bottom.

And so he went through the training, and became a first-class shot. Having become a first-class shot he had no further use for the Home Guard. So he ceased to attend parades. And then in particular it was the time when the danger of a German invasion was receding and so Turing wanted to get on to other and better things. But of course the reports that he was missing on parade were constantly being relayed back to Headquarters and the officer commanding the Home Guard eventually summoned Turing to explain his repeated absence. It was a Colonel Fillingham, who became absolutely apopletic in situations of this kind.

This was perhaps the worst that he had had to deal with, because Turing went along and when asked why he had not been attending parades he explained it was because he was now an excellent shot and that was why he had joined. And Fillingham said, "But it is not up to you whether to attend parades or not. When you are called on parade, it is your duty as a soldier to attend". And Turing said, "But I am not a soldier". Filligham: "What do you mean, you are not a soldier! You are under military law!" And Turing: "You know, I rather thought this sort of situation could arise", and to Fillingham he said: "I don’t know I am under military law."

And anyway, to cut a long story short, Turing said, "If you look at my form you will see that I protected myself against this situation". And so, of course, they got the form; they could not touch him; he had been improperly enrolled. So all they could do was to declare that he was not a member of the Home Guard. Of course that suited him perfectly. It was quite characteristic of him. And it was not being clever. It was just taking this form, taking it at its face value and deciding what was the optimal stategy if you had to complete a form of this kind. So much like the man all the way through.