Seems Bletchley won't be getting any additional funds BBC NEWS | Technology | Aid for Bletchley Park rejected Did a course when I worked for BT at Bletchley, didn't fully appreciate the place at the time
BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Alan Turing Alan Turing In Our Time Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alan Turing (1912-1954) whose 1936 paper On Computable Numbers effectively founded computer science. Immediately recognised by his peers, his wider reputation has grown as our reliance on computers has grown. He was a leading figure at Bletchley Park in the Second World War, using his ideas for cracking enemy codes, work said to have shortened the war by two years and saved millions of lives. That vital work was still secret when Turing was convicted in 1952 for having a sexual relationship with another man for which he was given oestrogen for a year, or chemically castrated. Turing was to kill himself two years later. The immensity of his contribution to computing was recognised in the 1960s by the creation of the Turing Award, known as the Nobel of computer science, and he is to be the new face on the £50 note. With Leslie Ann Goldberg Professor of Computer Science and Fellow of St Edmund Hall, University of Oxford Simon Schaffer Professor of the History of Science at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Darwin College And Andrew Hodges Biographer of Turing and Emeritus Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford Producer: Simon Tillotson
I've read Professor Ferris' "Official History" and to be honest, he appears to have been overwhelmed by the sheer scale of the task undertaken... sadly the book is a disappointment with little flow and seemingly little feeling for his subject. Compared with the writings of other authors on the same subject, I think I'll take his conclusions with a pinch of salt.
I have just been listening to Prof, Sue Black of Durham University who was involved in taking oral histories of the women who worked at Bletchley.She then started fundraising to help rescue the site.£4.1 million pounds cane from lottery between 2008-2011.She says 8,ooo women worked at Bletchley during the War.The project saved thousands of lives.The film about Turing, whilst interesting was full of errors, but has raised awareness of what was originally a well kept secret.