Nick Clark – The Independent: ” From George Orwell, who insisted all his manuscripts be preserved, to Charles Dickens who wanted no memorials put up to his life, history buffs can now explore the wills of some of the most influential figures of the past 150 years at the click of a mouse. The Government today announced it had digitised its archive of 41 million wills registered in England and Wales, dating back to 1858, allowing people to also research their own families. Among them are the last wishes of Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill, economist John Maynard Keynes, who wanted his unpublished manuscripts and personal papers destroyed, and war time code breaker Alan Turing. Turing, who died of cyanide poisoning in 1954 and whose story was recently adapted for the big screen in The Imitation Game, left a brief will sharing his possessions equally among a group of colleagues and his mother…HM Courts and Tribunals Service masterminded the project, calling in digital data storage group Iron Mountain, as part of the drive to “open up public services,” it said. Courts Minister Shailesh Vara said the scheme “provides us with insights into the ordinary and extraordinary people who helped shape this country, and the rest of the world…” It will take 10 days to receive an electronic copy and will cost £10.