Stolen memorabilia and accolades belonging to Second World War Bletchley Park code-breaker Alan Turing are to be returned to their rightful place at Sherborne School.
The exceptional mathematician attended the independent boy’s boarding school between May 1926 to July 1931 and is one of Sherborne’s most distinguished alumni.But in 1984, Julie Turing, who is no relation to the Turing family having changed her name from Julie Schwinghamer, visited Sherborne School and took many of Alan’s belongings from the archives.
These items had been given to the school in 1965 by the Turing family, in memory of the time Alan spent there as a pupil.
Sherborne School Headmaster Dr Dominic Luckett said: “We continue to be very proud to count Alan Turing among our most distinguished alumni. His crucial work as a code- breaker at Bletchley Park and his enormous contribution to the subsequent development of computing have become more widely recognised in recent years and we as a school are keen to do all we can to preserve and promote his legacy.
“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. We are extremely pleased to hear that a settlement has been reached with Ms. Julia Turing (formerly known as Julia Schwinghamer) concerning the return to Sherborne School of items she removed in 1984 without permission.
“Amongst the items we are looking forward to being returned to the school are six of Alan Turing’s school reports dating from 1924 to 1931 which chart his intellectual development between the ages of 12 and 18; the OBE he was awarded in 1946 for secret war service in the Foreign Office, together with a letter from King George VI regretting that due to ill health he was unable to present the award in person; the Princeton University PhD certificate awarded to Alan Turing in 1938; and the portrait photographs taken of Alan Turing in 1951 when he was made a fellow of the Royal Society. “We are sorry that by removing the material from the school archives Ms. Turing has denied generations of pupils and researchers the opportunity to consult it.
“However, once the material is returned to the school it will be available for consultation either in person or via the Alan Turing page on the school archives website.”
The stolen letter from King George VI was written on Buckingham Place letterhead, and reads: “I greatly regret that I am unable to give you personally the award which you . “I now send it to you with my congratulations and my best wishes for your future happiness.”
Other items taken were school reports from Hazelhurst Preparatory School and Sherborne School along with postcards and photographs, which were kept in a wooden box. An excerpt from Alan’s last school report reads: “A gifted and distinguished boy whose future we shall watch with much interest.”
The stolen memorabilia were found at the home of Julie Turing in Conifer, Colorado in 2018. A US civil court case launched against her was settled out of court. Homeland Securities Investigations told the school the items would be returned.
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