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DOI: 10.1145/2380656.2380682
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alan turing remembered

In 1945 MY father, Max New- man, who had been working at Bletchley Park during the Sec- ond World War, was appointed head of the Mathematics Department at Manchester University. At that time my parents, my brother Edward, and I were living at Cross Farm in the village of Comberton, near Cambridge. My father’s new job required us to move close to Manchester, and my parents therefore bought a house in Bowdon, Cheshire. In 1946 we moved there from Cross Farm, which was rented out to tenants.

During the postwar years a steady stream of academics visited us at the Bowdon house. Some of them were bright young mathematicians who were being considered for teaching posts in the department. Others were more senior academics, invited by my father to give lectures: John Cockcroft, Mary Cartwright, Henry Whitehead, Norbert Wiener, and others. In those postwar years it would have been expensive for these visitors to stay in hotels, so they stayed with us, usually for just one night.

During the late 1940s our most frequent guest was Alan Turing. In 1946

my father, having secured a substantial grant from the Royal Society for computer research, had offered Alan a position as a Reader in the Mathematics Department, and Deputy Director of the Computing Laboratory. Alan accepted, taking up the position in 1948 and later buying a house (“Hollymeade”) in Wilmslow, eight miles from Bowdon. Living so close, Alan was now able to visit us quite frequently on weekends. He usually made the journey on his bicycle, which had been fitted with a small gasoline engine. His visits were enjoyed by all