Not White Enough.
Working for the East India Company was very lucrative and was probably the most coveted job in the 18th century. The jobs were almost exclusively reserved for white males. Getting a foot in the door was all about who you knew. Even for manual labour jobs in the warehouses you needed a nomination from one of the company directors. (There were 24 directors, chosen from a pool who had at least £2,000 in company stock, elected annually).
The Turings were a Scottish family whose members had served the East India Company since 1729 when Robert Turing was appointed as a surgeon in Madras. Robert’s sister Helen married a cousin Henry Turing who was a wig maker in London. Helen and Henry’s sons John and William joined the Company as Madras civil servants in the 1760s.
Here’s where our story starts …
William Turing had a son John William Turing, born on May 20, 1774. Not much is know of the Mother, except that her name was “Nancy” (according to William Turing’s will). Nancy was believed to be Indian or Anglo Indian. As expected John Turing was not the ‘whitest-of-whites’.
Sometime during 1791, after a short trip to London, John Turing was on a ship bound for India. A few officers of the East India Company on the ship questioned who he was. John Turing replied he was a military officer in Madras working for the East India Company. The officers did not believe him.
Shortly after, on 19 April 1791, the East India Company’s Committee of Shipping reported that a John Turing who had been appointed as a military officer cadet for Madras appeared to be “a Native of India”. The Court of Directors called in John Turing so they could inspect him. After the meeting, the directors resolved unanimously that the sons of native Indians would henceforward not be appointed by the Court to employment in the Company’s civil, military, or marine services. John Turing’s cadetship was rescinded.
In 1795 Anglo-Indians were disqualified from service in the Company’s Armies except as bandsmen and farriers. During the following years, the East India Company gradually extended the categories for exclusion to ‘all whose Complexion evidently shows that their Parents are not severally Natives of Great Britain or Ireland'.
As some of you might have guessed, Alan Turing, the famous scientist, belonged to this same Turing Family. Alan’s parents were Julius Mathison Turing who worked for the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and Ethel Sara Turing.
Fearing discrimination from the East India Company as well as from the British Government towards children born in India, Julius went on leave from his position with the Indian Civil Service (ICS) and he and Ethel travelled to London where Alan Turing was born on 23 June 1912.