Queer Places:
Sherborne School, Abbey Rd, Sherborne DT9 3AP, Regno Unito
Christ Church Churchyard
Catshill, Bromsgrove District, Worcestershire, England
Christopher
Collan Morcom (July 13, 1911 – February 13, 1930) was born on July 13th, 1911.
He attended Sherborne School as a Scholar in the
Summer term of 1925. He at once made his mark as a boy of outstanding intellectual gifts. He could have
done well in other subjects, but Mathematics and Science attracted him most of all, and to these he added
an unusual knowledge of Astronomy. He won an Open Scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge
in
December 1929, and was to have gone into residence in October 1930, but early in February
1930 he was suddenly attacked again by an
illness for which he had a severe operation three years before. He faced the unexpected danger with the
uncomplaining courage which was a part of him. He was taken to London and it was hoped that the attack
would pass off. A relapse led to two operations, and this was too much for his strength. He passed away
peacefully at noon six days after the blow fell.
While attending Sherborne School, sixteen-year-old
Alan Turing fell in love with his schoolmate, Christopher Morcom, who died unexpectedly of bovine tuberculosis at the age of nineteen. Socially inept, Turing exhibited symptoms of autism, and Morcom had brought him out of his shell. Grief stricken following Morcom's death, Turing spent the next few years studying the question of how the human mind might survive death – Morcom's mind in particular. This research led to the study of quantum-mechanical theory and ultimately to the concept of thinking machines. He went on to study at Cambridge but moved to the U.S., where he earned a doctorate at Princeton (1938). He later became a specialist in the field of cryptanalysis.
Actor Jack Bannon portrayed Christopher Morcom in the 2014 film The Imitation Game.
Morcom lies near the home he loved so well in Worcestershire. Funeral service was held on February 15 1930 at Catshill. Turing visited Chris’topher's “grave” in August 1930.
He was buried at dawn with the darkness all behind him – though there was no darkness in this life save the
pain of his illness.
Great as were his intellectual gifts, they were more than equalled by the charm of his nature. To know him
was to love him for his modesty, his kindness, his own great love of happiness and laughter and his stainless
character. Those who had the privilege of knowing him intimately will preserve a memory of even more
than this with an abiding thankfulness for four or five years of friendship.
Posthumous portrait of Christopher Morcom
by Norman Hirst, 1930
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