LONDON — Wartime codebreaker Alan Turing's papers have been saved by a last-minute donation from the National Heritage Memorial Fund of $345,000.
The papers had been put up for auction in late 2010 and a campaign was organized by journalist Gareth Halfacree to raise the funds to buy them for the UK's national museum of computing in Bletchley Park. Although Google contributed cash to the fund too, the campaign failed to raise enough money to match the reserve price.
All of Turing's work at Bletchley Park was secret and destroyed after the war, and he kept almost none of his work himself.However, campaigners were granted a reprieve after the papers failed to reach the reserve price at auction. The collection was instead marked for later sale, but just days before the sale was due to take place, the National Heritage Memorial Fund stumped up $345,000, to add to the $45,000 donated by the public and the $100,000 pledged by Google, completing the funding required.
The papers will now be passed to the Bletchley Park Trust, who'll safeguard them for future generations. There were fears they'd be locked away in the vaults of a private collector instead.
They include sixteen of Turing's eighteen published works, complete with annotations from Professor Max Newman, a friend of Turing who also worked at Bletchley Park. They also include a visitors book from the Newman household that has several of Turing's signatures, his mother's signature, and the signatures of a number of other notable wartime codebreakers.
While that might not sound like much, very little of Turing's life survives. All his work at Bletchley Park was secret and destroyed after the war, and he kept almost none of his work himself. Turing eventually committed suicide in 1954 after being prosecuted for engaging in homosexual acts and being forced to undergo chemical castration via oestrogen injections. Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the government in 2009 for Turing's treatment.
The news that the papers were saved was welcomed by the Bletchley Park Trust. CEO Simon Greenish said: "We are delighted to have the collection here at Bletchley Park, which is surely its most fitting home, and it will be an incredible addition to the visitor experience."
Google's Peter Barron added: "Turing is a hero to many of us at Google for his pioneering work on algorithms and the development of computer science. We're delighted that this important Collection will now be accessible to everyone visiting Bletchley Park."
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