Rare Alan Turing wartime papers saved for the nation for nearly £400,000 will join collection at King’s College, Cambridge
Rare project writings by Alan Turing have been saved for the nation and they will join the largest collection of documents relating to the Second World War codebreaker at King’s College, Cambridge.
The wartime documents are valued at more than £397,000 and relate to the Delilah project which developed a portable encryption system for use in military operations.
An export bar was placed on the documents to prevent them being taken abroad and funds were raised to buy them. This included £250,000 from algorithmic trading firm XTX Markets, a £20,000 grant from the charity Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, and more than £97,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, private donations, and King’s College.
The papers consist of more than 40 pages of unpublished Delilah project notes written by Turing and his colleague Donald Bayley.
The documents will join the largest collection of Turing-related documents at King’s College and, once digitised, become part of the Turing Papers online archive which is freely available to scholars and researchers. Turing arrived at King’s College as an undergraduate in 1931 and was made a fellow in 1935.
Following Turing’s ground-breaking work on the Enigma machines at Bletchley Park he began work on the Delilah project at Hanslope Park to develop a portable encryption system, or voice scrambler, to protect military secrets in the field.
Lisa Nandy, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said: “It’s brilliant news that the Friends of the Nations’ Libraries charity has successfully campaigned to save Alan Turing’s vital notebooks.
“Turing was not only a pioneering figure in science and mathematics, but also a national hero.
“This is a powerful example of what can be achieved when private and charitable sectors come together.
“After a government export ban was placed on the notebooks, this collaboration has ensured that these treasures will be preserved for years to come.”
The Turing Archive was founded in 1960 following a donation of his papers by his mother, Sara Turing.
King’s College provost Gillian Tett said: “Alan Turing’s work laid the foundations of computer science, artificial intelligence and much of our modern world. We are honoured to house the ‘Delilah’ papers at King’s and are deeply grateful to our partners in this endeavour.”
Geordie Greig, chair of Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, said: “This extraordinary private donation means that crucial papers written by one of Britain’s geniuses have been saved and can be studied at Cambridge.”
Alex Gerko, founder and co-chief executive at XTX Markets, said: “The ‘Delilah’ papers are a unique collection of notes from one of the nation’s greatest mathematicians. It’s important that this archive remains in the UK and is made publicly accessible, so we are thrilled to be part of that effort.”
