Facebook has made a £1 million donation to Bletchley Park to support its work for the next two years after the charity and museum said it had lost 95% of its income because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The social network said the donation was in recognition of the Buckinghamshire country’s house’s legacy as a birthplace of modern computing.
Bletchley Park was the base for codebreakers during the Second World War, who helped decrypt communications from Nazi Germany using the first large-scale digital computers.
Today, the Bletchley Park Trust is a registered charity, heritage attraction and independent museum with the aim of educating visitors on the site’s legacy, and also runs learning programmes around coding.
However, a four-month closure because of the coronavirus lockdown saw the trust report an expected £2 million deficit for the year because of lost visitor numbers.
Iain Standen, chief executive of Bletchley Park, said Facebook’s donation would help preserve the park’s visitor experiences and learning programmes.
The donation comes alongside £447,000 in support from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Culture Recovery Fund.
“We are very grateful to both Facebook for their generous donation and DCMS for their financial support,” he said,
“Facebook’s donation highlights the ongoing legacy of pioneering technology developed here during World War Two.
“Whilst the Culture Recovery Fund demonstrates how vital it is to the nation to save heritage sites like Bletchley Park. With this significant support, we at Bletchley Park can weather the current crisis and survive into the future, keeping the doors open for future generations.”
Steve Hatch, Facebook’s vice president for northern Europe, said the social network’s own work on new technologies would not have been possible without Bletchley Park.
“The historic achievements of Alan Turing and the Bletchley team have benefited all of us greatly, including Facebook, and we’re thrilled to help preserve this spiritual home of modern computing,” he said.
“The UK is our biggest engineering hub outside of the US and responsible for building technologies to keep our community safe, for the future of work and commerce, and for the exciting world of VR and AR.
“This wouldn’t have been possible without the legacy of Alan Turing and his team and our hope is that Bletchley staying open inspires the next generation of engineers.”
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here