Spies no longer face probe into private life Stories of Turing burying his silver bullion and then forgetting where he had buried it, chaining his mug to his radiator, and cycling in his gas mask to ward off hay fever, suggested a sense of eccentricity, Mr Lobban said. But he added: "Turing was not an eccentric, unless you believe that there is only one way of being normal and to be otherwise is to be peculiar. Turing wasn't eccentric: he was unique. He told an audience at Leeds University that he believed that a signals intelligence agency needed the widest range of skills possible to be successful, and "to deny itself talent just because the person with the talent doesn't conform to a social stereotype is to starve itself of what it needs to thrive." Mr Lobban said that part of his job was to attract the best people and harness their talents, and "not allow preconceptions and stereotypes to stifle innovation and agility." "I want to harness the best talent there is not just so that they can be inventive, but so that they can apply themselves to the big issues of intelligence and security which challenge an organisation which simply has to remain at the cutting edge in order to survive and thrive," Mr Lobban added. I want to apply and exploit their talent: in return, I think it's fair that I don't need to tell them how to live their lives. The fact that Turing was "unashamedly gay" was widely known to his immediate colleagues at Bletchley Park, Mr Lobban added, but it was not an issue. I don't want to pretend that GCHQ was an organisation with twenty-first century values in the twentieth century, but it was at the most tolerant end of the cultural spectrum. In an organisation which valued the skills and characteristics difference can bring, Turing's homosexuality was less of a talking point than his insights into the complex crypt problems of the day. When he was put on trial, Hugh Alexander, the head of cryptanalysis at GCHQ, told the court that Turing was a "national asset." The head of GCHQ described Turing as a "founder of the Information Age" whose work influenced everything from washing machines to smart phones. If he was working today he would be working on fending off cyber attacks. Mr Lobban described Turing's death as a "loss to the nation" and added: "We can't rewrite the past. We can't wish mid-twentieth century Britain into a different society with different attitudes. We can be glad that we live in a more tolerant age. He described the current ethos of GCHQ as: "Use whatever tools you have; if there's a chance, go for it." And he added: "We don't just enjoy the intellectual stimulation of puzzles: we enjoy solving them for a purpose...Many people serve silently but are responsible for both brilliant ideas and the application of those ideas into real life solutions which ultimately have protected, and continue to protect, the UK's national security." Earlier this year an MI6 manager told the inquest into the death of Gareth Williams, a GCHQ code-breaker whose naked body was found in a sports bag in his flat in Pimlico, London, that they had "no set template" for their officers" private lives.