A bronze bust of Alan Turing, sculpted by David Williams-Ellis will be unveiled at Sherborne School in an intimate event on Saturday, June 26.


The face of the new £50 note and one of the nation’s greatest icons of the 20th century, Alan Turing is an inspiration not only to Sherborne School but to the Sherborne community, and the unveiling is a celebration of his pioneering work and his impact on both science and society today.

Alan Turing is one of the school’s most famous former pupils, attending the school between 1926 and 1931.
Sherborne resident Kathryn Ballisat, inspired by Turing’s story and his connection to the town, commissioned David Williams-Ellis to create the bust of Turing.

Williams-Ellis is an internationally acclaimed sculptor, most recently known for his piece commemorating the D Day Landings at Ver-sur-Mer. The bust will be unveiled by Turing’s nephew and former Sherborne pupil Sir John Dermot Turing (Sherborne School 1974-78), and will stand on a plinth in the School grounds.

In 1939, at the outbreak of the Second World War Alan Turing joined the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire, where he was part of the team deciphering the Enigma machine. In 1942 he travelled to the USA to liaise with US codebreakers and in 1943 commenced work on speech encipherment at Hanslope Park. In 1945 Turing joined the National Physical Laboratory at Teddington where he designed the ACE computer. Awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his war service, Turing gave the earliest known lecture to mention computer intelligence, so founding the field now known as Artificial Intelligence.

Sherborne School takes its role in preserving and promoting Turing’s legacy very seriously. In November 2020 the school was extremely pleased to hear that a settlement had been reached in the USA confirming that items belonging to Turing and stolen from the school in 1985, would be returned to their rightful place at Sherborne School.

Pupils at Sherborne have embarked on a project to produce an app giving a virtual reality experience of Alan Turing’s life, his possessions and his time at Sherborne School.

When the project is complete the boys plan to donate money generated through sales of the app to one of the Turing family’s charities. The 12-strong project team aged 13-18 will be at the unveiling. And prior to the unveiling, Sherborne School is set to receive a limited-edition print of the Turing £50 banknote artwork from Sarah John, Chief Cashier, Director of Notes, Bank of England.

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