This is the Alan Turing memorial in Sackville Gardens.

Alan Turing is celebrated for his crucial contribution to the Allied victory in WW2 when he, and his fellow code-breakers at Bletchley Park, famously broke the enigma cipher.  He is also the father of modern computing and artificial intelligence.  His concept of the Turing machine is still one of the most widely examined theories of computation.

A victim of the prevalent attitudes toward homosexuality, Turing was prosecuted when an affair with a young man came to the notice of the police. Rather than go to prison he accepted probation on the condition of having hormonal treatment which was, in effect, a chemical castration. His security clearance was revoked, ending ongoing work with the government code-breaking department.

Alan Turing was found dead in bed by his cleaner on 8 June 1954. He had died from cyanide poisoning and a partly eaten apple lay next to his body. The coroner’s verdict was suicide.

In the statue, he holds the ill fated fruit and some believe this is where the Apple logo comes from, as a nod towards his achievements from Steve Jobs.

In December 2013, Alan Turing was granted a posthumous royal pardon, formally cancelling his criminal conviction. It followed a four-year campaign supported by tens of thousands of people, including scientists Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins.

Every year on his birthday (23 June), Computer Science students from Manchester University leave flowers at the memorial, and students from across the UK make a donation in his name to Special Effect, a charity that adapts computer games to make them accessible to children and adults with disabilities.

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Although I am only on Day 11 of taking a photo every day, it's been a real eye opener for me. I knew the flowers were at the memorial so decided to go in my lunch hour instead of sitting at my desk.  It took me an hour to walk there and back so got lots of steps in (which you don't get from reading) and since the temperature is currently pushing 30 degrees at the moment, I was able to get some sun on my bones.  I was also joined on the bench by an elderly gentleman who chatted to me about Turing's life.  I never knew there would be so much more to this activity than just a few nice photos!