Alan Turing was chosen following the bank’s character selection process, including advice from scientific experts and a six-week public nomination period, with the final decision made by Governor Mark Carney.

Mr Carney said: “Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today. As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as war hero, Alan Turing’s contributions were far-ranging and path-breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.”

Mr Turing provided the theoretical underpinnings for the modern computer and played a critical role devising code-breaking machines during World War II.

Living in a time when homosexuality was criminalised in Britain, he was found guilty of gross indecency for his relationship with a man and underwent “chemical castration” as an alternative to imprisonment.

He died in 1954 from cyanide poisoning at the age of 41. An inquest found that he had taken his own life by eating a cyanide-laced apple, but some historians have challenged the verdict.

Mr Turing was posthumously pardoned by the Queen in 2013.

Making the announcement at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester today, Mr Carney revealed the imagery depicting Alan Turing and his work that will be used for the reverse of the note, which is expected to enter circulation by the end of 2021.

The full note design including all the security features will be unveiled closer to it entering circulation.