AMT/H
Donald Bayley (1921-2020) worked with Alan Turing on the World War Two project ‘Delilah’ at Hanslope Park during 1943-45. The project produced a working prototype machine, light enough to be used by soldiers in the field, for encrypting voice data, sending it securely by long short-wave radio or telephone, and reproducing it at the other end.
After the project finished, Donald Bayley kept the Delilah papers, stored with some of his university lecture notes.
Paper, 4 envelopes.
See also the biography by A. Hodges which describes the Delilah work, J. Copeland’s paper, Bonham’s sale catalogue description, and the government press announcement which are also available upon request from the archivists.
Within the Turing papers, A/5 includes a letter from Donald Bayley to Robin Gandy, Turing's executor and the winner of Turing's competition to name the project.
Provenance: Bayley died in 2020 and his family sold the papers by auction in November 2023. An export licence was applied for and declined under the Waverley criteria. The papers were purchased by King’s in March 2025 under the export licence bar scheme with the generous help of the Friends of the National Libraries, the National Heritage Memorial Fund and private donations.