Google has donated £550,000 for the Bletchley Park restoration fund to meliorate the historical and foremost code-breaking facility during WWII.
The online search company already contributed a hefty amount after looking over the profound documents of Alan Turing, widely considered as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence.
Peter Baron, Director of External Relations at Google, said, “The Bletchley Park Trust has been doing great work to honor Alan Turing and the code breakers who helped shorten the second world war and to educate the next generation about the history of modern computing.”
Google now has pledged a sufficient amount for the £15m needed to start with the crucial initiative to restore the landmark.
“We are delighted to make this charitable donation to help support the next phase of this important project,” added Baron.
After raising the full amount, the fund will help organizers rebuild the site into an information facility to celebrate the works spearheaded by Turing, including the conversion of unused huts to a visitor center and the conservation of others.
Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes was the site of the United Kingdom's main decryption establishment during World War II. Image: Draco2008 / Flickr (CC)
Bletchley Park Trust CEO Simon Greenish was appreciative of Google, saying, “We are tremendously grateful to Google for bringing us considerably closer to achieving our development aims. We have received other generous contributions towards the project but this is the largest single element of the partnership funding and absolutely vital in potentially getting the project underway much sooner than might otherwise have been the case.”
“It would be wonderful if other donors follow Google’s example to help preserve our computing heritage. We could then proceed as soon as possible with restoration of the profoundly historically significant codebreaking huts,” added Greenish to lure other tech companies into the project.
