Secret notebooks written by Alan Turing during WWII saved for the nation

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Rare notebooks of Alan Turing’s unpublished code-breaking during World War II were saved for the country thanks to a charity campaign.

The British mathematician, who was credited to breaking the enigma code, rarely preserved his own research notes, which means that evidence of his papers was often lost. But now a significant archive has been saved by a campaign led by the Libraries of Friends of the Nations, after the government entered to stop its sale for £ 400,000 unless private funds were raised.

The handwritten notes document Turing’s “Delilah Project”, which involves using a portable voting coder in military operations.

In 1943 he turned to the project after his groundbreaking work on the Enigma machines at Bletchley Park.

With the help of electrical engineer Donald Bayley, he built a single prototype of the machine that could digitize the speech and enveloped for transmission over a telephone line.

Turing's Secret Papers join the main archive at King's College, Cambridge, after a charity campaign — Turing’s Secret Papers join the main archive at King’s College, Cambridge, after a charity campaign (King’s College)

The two men kept a log of the results of the experiment, along with handwritten notes of the lectures given to engineers at Hanslope Park, a mysterious government communications center near Milton Keynes.

Despite Turing’s status as a national hero, the 40 pages of notes were at risk of leaving the UK – unless a British library or archive could increase the £ 397,680 to buy it at the auction.

In an effort to stop sale to an international bidder, the government followed advice to place a temporary export license on the notebooks in August 2024, which means they are banned from leaving the country.

The papers, described as a national treasure and the most important archive of Turing material that has ever come to the auction, have now been rescued by a large private donation.

The newspapers will now be held at King’s College, Cambridge, thanks to a donation of £ 250,000 from the Algorithmic Trade Firm XTX Markets and a £ 20,000 award from Friends of the Nations’ Libraries, which has helped the written and print history of the United Kingdom since the founding in 1931.

Turing's handwritten notes on the bandwidth setting. — Turing’s handwritten notes on the bandwidth setting. (King’s College)

Geordie Greig, chairman of Friends of the Nations’ libraries and editor -in -chief of The independent, said: “This extraordinary private donation means that important papers written by one of Britain’s genius have been saved and studied in Cambridge.

“This is a wonderful generosity through XTX markets and founder Alex Gerko, and we are delighted that we have played a role in bringing this brilliant collaboration between XTX markets and King’s College, a center of academic excellence, to save our heritage.”

Alex Gerko, co-executive of XTX Markets, said: “The ‘Delilah’ articles are a unique collection of notes of one of the greatest mathematicians of the country. It is important that this archive remains in the United Kingdom and is made public, and we are excited to be part of the effort.”

The balance of support comes from a £ 97,876 award from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, Private Donations and King’s College.

Turing turned to the 'Delilah project' to his groundbreaking job on the Enigma machine on Bletchley Park — Turing turned to the ‘Delilah project’ to his groundbreaking job on the Enigma machine on Bletchley Park (Getty)

Lisa Nandy, the cultural secretary, said: “This is brilliant news that the charity of the Friends of the Libraries’ Libraries successfully fought to save Alan Turing’s important notebooks. Turing was not only a pioneering figure in science and math, but also a national hero.

“This is a powerful example of what can be achieved when private and charity sectors gather. After a ban on the government’s exports has been placed on the notebooks, this collaboration has ensured that these treasures will be kept for years.”

The notebooks will now join the largest collection of Turing-related documents at King’s College, where Turing from 1931 to 1934 studied as an undergraduate student. Once they are digitized, they will become part of the Turing Papers Online Archive, which is freely available to scientists and students around the world.

The original archive was founded after his mother, Sarah, donated his newspapers in 1960.

King’s College Provost Gillian Tett said: “Alan Turing’s work has laid the foundation of computer science, artificial intelligence and a large part of our modern world. We are honored to house the ‘Delilah’ papers at King’s and are very grateful to our partners in this effort, especially XTX markets, Alex Gerko and The Friends’ Libraries. ‘

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