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Bletchley Park fights to save Alan Turing's papers
THE BLETCHLEY PARK TRUST has launched a campaign to buy World War Two code breaker Alan Turing's papers at a Christie's auction.
If you didn't know, unsung hero Alan Turing was a polymath who broke the German codes at Bletchley Park and helped turn the tide of the war in the allies favour. Without Turing, we might all be speaking German now. The mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist died in 1954, committing suicide at age 41. His suicide was thought to be due to his prosecution for homosexuality two years earlier. He died without receiving public recognition.
Christie's has what is thought to be the biggest collection of his papers and they are expected to fetch between £300,000 to £500,000 at auction. The Trust announced the campaign so it can raise enough funds to put Turing's important works in mathematics and cryptology back where they rightly belong - on permanent public display at Bletchley Park.
Gareth Halfacree, a Bletchley Park Trust supporter came up with the idea to raise the cash because the Park hasn't got enough money to pay for the papers.
"I'm asking for volunteers to dig deep and see to it that these papers not only stay in this country but stay where the public can see them and benefit from them," said Halfacree.
"Let's save them from being locked away in the vaults of a private collector," he added.
Any other country in would have enough sense of history to celebrate people like Turing and it's shocking that the government hasn't stepped in to offer the funds to buy the papers.
The auction will be held on November 23 so there's not much time left to donate cash to save the valuable collected works of Alan Turing. If you do want to contribute, you can donate to save Alan Turing's papers. You can also view these historic papers that rightfully belong at Bletchley Park. µ
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Whilst that is true to a large extent the codes in question were the naval codes that had yet to be broken, you are in deed correct that the army and airforce codes were broken by the poles before the war really kicked off, all be it that the Germans changed the system every now and then, i believe it was the british that finally got the airforce codes. the success of the poles was helped by a huge part by a spy who was able to get much of the information and criticaly the design spec of the machine which allowed the polish to build their own machiens. Ironically the Brits and french didnt really pay much attection until it was too late when the polish gave us all the information we need to build them.
The naval codes were however a british code breakers win, of course much of the backgroud info came from the poles which in turn came from within germany/spain its self but the breaking its self was British.
I wonder who is trying to profit from this.
Also - sorry, Alan Turing was one of many as others have pointed out and think what else could be done with half a million pounds!
Sorry to burst your Brit bubble but it was 3 Polish mathematicians - Adam Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki, and Henryk Zygalski, who "broke the German codes".
It's the language of an important European Union country and trading partner. And Austria. (And Switzerland.) I couldn't manage it but...
Bletchley Park was full of people speaking German, you know. So they are an example for us to follow.