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C5 Alliance, Guernsey, hosted a ceremony on 25 June to officially rename its headquarters. The former Itex House is now known as Turing House.
The new name was chosen in honour and recognition of Alan Turing – the individual cited as the father of modern computer science – whose code breaking skills helped crack the famous enigma cipher, shortening World War II significantly.
Marc Laine, C5 Alliance Guernsey managing director, said that there are a number of reasons why the company chose to commemorate the computer pioneer in this way and that he sees many parallels with the ground breaking work Turing did and the way in which C5 Alliance can positively impact on local businesses and the local economy.
‘It is well known that Alan Turing helped shortened WWII which in a local context makes him an island hero. If the island, we now all do business in and call home, continued to be occupied for any greater length of time it could have had even further devastating effects.
‘We have a former German Naval HQ very near to our headquarters in the Gibauderie where we understand enigma machines were being used, Alan Turing and his team were decoding messages at Bletchley Park which were coming from Guernsey and last year Alun Turning was given a posthumous royal pardon addressing his 1952 conviction for ‘gross indecency’’, said Mr Laine.
The event coincided with the 70th anniversary of the D-Day landings and the 60th anniversary of Alan Turing’s death. To mark the occasion, C5 Alliance arranged for Alan Turning’s niece, Inagh Payne, to attend the opening ceremony and also displayed a replica Nazi 3 enigma machine.
