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He was a supporter of the Dorking and Leith Hill Preservation Society.Ĭrisp's most famous book title was inspired by his time as a life class model (Image: Mirrorpix) He lived in Surrey for more than 40 years, using the Surrey Hills, specifically Coldharbour and Holmbury St Mary, as settings in his work. The celebrated novelist, who went by the pen name EM Forster, explored attitudes to gender and homosexuality as well as hypocrisy and class difference in books such as A Room with a View (1908) and A Passage to India (1924). It's not just in Surrey where he has been acknowledged - in September 2009, then-prime minister Gordon Brown issued a formal apology on behalf of the British government, and even the logo for technology giants Apple was designed as a tribute to him. His Surrey history is commemorated with an English Heritage Blue plaque in Guildford's Ennismore Avenue, where he grew up, and a statue at the University of Surrey campus. This brought him so much stress that he ate an apple apparently laced with cyanide, although his mother never accepted this as suicide. Openly gay, he was given then-common hormonal treatment programmes to avoid imprisonment for homosexuality. It wouldn't be fair to say he wasn't recognised as important during his life – he was given an OBE for his work – but a crucial point in his story was persecution for his homosexuality.Īlan Turing is set to be the face of the new £50 polymer bank note, released in 2021 (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
HISTORIC FAMOUS GAY MEN CODE
He was most famous for his contribution to cracking the Enigma code that the Nazis used to encrypt secret messages during the Second World War.
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Alan Turing (1912-1954)ĭescribed as an influential figure in the shaping of the modern computer, Turing was a technology and wartime icon every bit as much as a gay icon. From scientists to authors, musicians to activists, this list is a collection of important cultural figures as well as people who managed to make big progress for LGBT acceptance.ĭue to the nature of the time periods, trans people are not prominent on the list, but there are many that people inside and outside the LGBT+ community can look up to for their work in breaking boundaries while becoming important British icons. Looking back through Surrey's past for LGBT History Month, there are a lot of famous icons who have had links to the county.Īs is the case with any important LGBT figures, they transcend the community itself.