Alan Turing items – including school reports – back in Sherborne from US

Paul JonesSeptember 11, 20230 Comment0

MEMBERS of the US Department of Homeland Security Investigations were in Sherborne recently.

But rather than taking away a suspect – they were returning some items to Sherborne School.

The items – possessions of the the great mathematician, wartime code cracker and Sherborne School alumni, Alan Turing – were removed from the school without authorisation almost 40 years ago.

But on August 22, a repatriation ceremony was held at Sherborne School, where HSI Special Agent Greg Werstch formally handed over material from the Turing Archive to headmaster, Dr Dominic Luckett.

Including items such as school reports and a passport photograph, the material was removed from the school’s archive in 1984.

A passport photograph of Alan Turing from 1936. Picture: Sherborne School

They were seized in Colorado, in America, by the US Dept of Homeland Security Investigations in 2018, with Department of Justice Assistant US Attorney, Laura Hurd, and her team working to return them, with the assistance of MET Inspector Alan Seldon and HSI Rep Dipesh Dattani from the US Embassy in London.

Dr Luckett, who is also the school CEO, said Turing is one of Sherborne School’s most distinguished alumni.

“Few people have had a greater positive impact upon the world than Alan Turing,” he said.

“Although denied due recognition before his life came to a tragic and premature end in 1954, the extraordinary nature of his achievements is now finally being understood and celebrated.

“His crucial work as a cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park and his enormous contribution to the development of computing and artificial intelligence were not merely of vital practical significance at the time but continue to underpin many of today’s most important intellectual and technological advances.

“As a School, we are intensely proud of our association with Alan Turing and want to do all we can to preserve and promote his legacy.

“As part of that, we take very seriously our responsibility to look after those items in our archives which relate to his time at Sherborne School and his subsequent life and work.

“I am most grateful to all those, in the US and closer to home, who have worked so hard to ensure the safe return of these precious artefacts.”

To see the items, and to learn more about Alan Turing and his links to Sherborne School, log on to https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/alan-turing/repatriated-material-from-sherborne-schools-alan-turing-archive