Treasure trove of Alan Turing's papers hidden in the loft of WWII hero's best friend - but are then nearly shredded by his family

Daily Mail​

21-05-2025

A cache of papers found in a loft and almost shredded is tipped to sell for £150,000 after they were found to be the work of wartime code breaker Alan Turing.
The 'Alan Turing Papers' are the origins of computer science by the genius mathematician.
They include his personal signed copy of his 1938 PhD dissertation, 'Systems of Logic Based on Ordinals'. It is valued between £40,000 to £60,000.
Also featured is his paper 'On Computable Numbers' also known as 'Turing's Proof' which introduced the world to the idea of a universal computing machine in 1936.
It is has been described as the first programming manual of the computer age and also has a guide price of £40,000 to £60,000.
Turing played a vital role in cracking the German Enigma code, a feat that was crucial to the Allied victory in the Second World War.
But Turing was gay at a time when homosexual relations were illegal.
He was convicted of gross indecency with a man in 1952 and chose to be chemically castrated over going to prison.
He took his own life two years later aged just 41.
After his death, his mother Ethel gave her son's papers to his loyal friend and fellow mathematician Norman Routledge.
Ethel wrote Routledge a covering letter in which she revealed how she knew her late son 'was a winner from the age of six.'
She added that she 'always believed that he had a gift'.
She also expressed her doubts that Turing's death was suicide, stating she was convinced it was accidental poisoning of cyanide.
Before he pleaded guilty to the criminal charge of gross indecency for homosexual acts in 1952, Turing sent Routledge a poignant letter known as 'Yours in distress'.
It was this letter that was read out by Benedict Cumberbatch, who played Turing in the 2014 film The Imitation Game.
The letter is now in the Alan Turing Archive at King's College Cambridge.
Routledge kept the papers for the rest of his life and stored them in the loft of his home in Bermondsey, south London.
He died in 2013 and his sister recovered them during a clear out.
But she just stored them in her attic, where they lay until she recently moved into a care home.
Her daughters came across the papers but they too didn't realise their importance or significance and were going to put them in a shredder along with other documents.
Luckily, they took them along to a family reunion event and one relative thought they should seek an expert opinion on them.
They then took them to an auctioneer's valuation day in a carrier bag.
Jim Spencer, of Rare Book Actions of Lichfield, Staffs, was stunned when he opened the bag and studied its contents.
They are now coming up for sale in 13 separate lots worth a combined £150,000.
Mr Spencer described the collection as a 'once in a lifetime chance' to acquire such important material.
He said: 'Nothing could've prepared me for what I was about to find in that carrier bag. I opened it and thought 'good lord.'
'These seemingly plain papers - perfectly preserved in the muted colours of their unadorned, academic wrappers - represent the foundations of computer science and modern digital computing.'
He explained the papers, known as 'offprints', were produced in very small numbers and distributed among fellow scholars, making them incredibly scarce survivors that rarely ever appear on the market.
Mr Spencer added: 'They are prized by collectors as representing the first separate edition of an important work.
'The dissertation is really important and the fact it is signed by Turing him makes it extra special.
'Intensively researching and cataloguing these papers has left me feeling that AlanTuring was superhuman.
'For me, it's like studying the language of another planet, something composed by an ultra-intelligent civilisation.
'At the same time, I keep thinking of the tragic end to Turing's life, precisely because he was treated as alien - charged as a criminal, barred from GCHQ, banned from the United States, and forced to undergo chemical castration - all this despite the invaluable work he'd done at Bletchley Park during the war, and for nothing more than his sexuality.
'This injustice, and the fact he didn't survive to see his enormous influence and impact, makes these papers feel so special.
'It's at least comforting to know that he lives on through his work. He survives through his legacy.'
The Turing Papers include 'The Chemical Basis of Morphogenesis' from 1952.
This, it is said, is Turing's lesser-known masterpiece of mathematical biology, and his last major published work.
It has since become a basic model in theoretical biology.
There are also letters written to Routledge from the celebrated novelist E.M Forster.
One of his nieces said: 'Norman was an amazing man who showed genuine interest in everyone he came into contact with.
'His family were very important to him. He kept in regular contact and was interested in what each one was doing.
'We finally had an opportunity to see Norman's papers when the family hosted a 'Routledge Reunion' weekend in November 2024.
'The papers were brought along in a carrier bag. One cousin felt the Turing and Forster papers might be of interest to collectors.
'We were bowled over by the valuations.'
Mr Spencer said: 'The potential value compels us to offer the papers individually.
'Hardly anything like this appears on the open market, so predicting hammer prices is almost fortune-telling.
'Ultimately, the market will speak.
'It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to acquire this material. I suspect interest will be strong in Silicon Valley - where Turing's influence shines brightly - but it would be lovely to see material acquired by institutions who could share things with the public.'