News & Reports

First Annual LEO Lecture at the London School of Economics on 14th October 2016
Details of this presentation by Eric Schmidt, Executive Chair of Alphabet, (parent company of GOOGLE), together with a PODCAST can be found here


DAVID TRESMAN CAMINER SCHOLARSHIP
Presentation of the award to the 2015 scholarship winner at the Scholarship and Awards Donor Ceremony at Middlesex University in November 2015. Report and pictures


Presentation by the LEO society
Framed photogaphs of Dr. John Pinkerton and David Caminer were presented to their widows by the Leo Computers Society, November 2014. A report and some photographs of the event can be seen  …Here


Leo I and Weather Forecasting.
LEO I was involved in the earliest attempts in the UK to use Computers for weather forecasting. In 1952 Dr Fred Bushby and Mavis Hinds of the UK Meteorological Office started using computers for solving their weather prediction model on LEO I, producing their first predictions in 1954. Subsequently they moved on to the Manchester Ferranti Mark I before the Met Office acquired its own more powerful computers including a KDF9. A very long and detailed paper provides a history of weather modeling including references to LEO I and use (pages, 50, 61and 63). The paper also refers to the much later use of one of the Czech LEO 360s, (LEO III 93, at VLD Prague) by the Czech meteorologists (page 44). A pdf version of the paper is provided by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)


2012 Pinkerton Lecture
The 2012 Pinkerton Lecture took place in Bangalore, India. For full details visit the IET website theiet.org/pinkerton


LEO 60th anniversary
A collection of articles and media, put together by Lynette of Google, to celebrate the 60th anniversary of LEO – the first business computer, on 17th November 2011  can be seen here…


To celebrate their 82nd birthday on October 24th 2010, Leo computer pioneer twins Frank and Ralph Land decided to try skydiving from 12000ft. and raise funds for Cancer Research.
Frank’s account of the event and some photographs, can be seen here…..
It’s not too late to recognise their tremendous achievement and raise more! The JustGiving site is still open at JustGiving/Frank-Land


The 2008 Pinkerton Lecture was on 26 November 2008.
— “Using Social Media to Inspire Change”
by Alex Balfour, Head of New Media, The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd, who has kindly provided the full transcript with slides here: www.slideshare.net/balf/pinkerton-lecture-2008-presentation


A Tribute to David Caminer. – report on the Computer Conservation Society event at The Science Museum on 11 September 2008.


50 Years Of Computer Payroll.
Report and pictures of the reception and seminar held on February 26 2004.


LEO in the Guinness Book of Records.
Guinness World Records have accepted the evidence provided by Frank Land that LEO I was the first ever business computer – and we have a certificate to prove it! The first of its many business applications was the valuation of the weekly output of bread and cakes from Lyons’ bakeries in November 1951


The First Computer Business Application
On 5th and 6th November 2001, an international conference was held at the Guildhall in London to mark the 50th anniversary of the world’s first business application of a computer, and to honour the Leo pioneers of 1951.
The conference, sponsored by the Corporation of London and many leaders of the computing and telecomms industry, was a great success and many ex-Leo employees joined the conference for the 2nd John Pinkerton Lecture, given, appropriately, by David Caminer OBE, Systems & Programming Manager for Leo from 1949. Report and pictures of the Conference held in November 2001.


REPORT OF THE INAUGURAL JOHN PINKERTON LECTURE December 2000


Scroll to Top