Ralph Land died after his twin brother Frank. They both came to the UK as twins in the 1930’s and made name for themselves in technology and sales.
Ralph Land Obituary from the Times Read More »
Frank land who came to the UK before WWII and was educated in London and joined Lyons in the early days of LEO the Lyons Electronic office Dies
Frank Land – the original programmer dies Read More »
https://ajr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/09/6879-AJR-Journal-Sept-2026-v6-WEB.pdf#page=16
The Land Brothers, refugees from Germany before WWII and educated in Britain before and after WWII passed away in their 90’s within a few months of each other. The above article on pages 16 to 17 oof the Association of Jewish Refugees tells their story.
Frank and Ralph Land Read More »
Frank Land was born, along with his twin brother Ralph, in Berlin, Germany, on 24 October 1928 and died May 2026 after a short illness. Frank was productive up to last couple of weeks of his life. Several Obituaries and articles in honour of Frank and his life achievements were published in Wikipedia, The Times, the Guardian, The Annals of IT, the Cambridge Centre for Computing History, TNMoC , the LSE and the Computer History Museum of Mountain View California . These all referenced in The LEO Computers Website. Here
Also BBC Radio 4 transmitted a “Last Word” Interview listen Here
See On the Blogs at LSE
Frank and his twin brother Ralph were born in Berlin, Germany, in 1928 but fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and came to the UK. After an undergraduate degree at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), Frank joined J. Lyons and began working on the world’s first business computer, LEO – the Lyons Electronic Office . Later he established teaching on systems analysis and design at LSE. An extensive review of his life and achievement is published by the Journal of information Technology
See Sage Journals
Frank Land and Ralph Land – Even before LEO I was created both Frank and Ralph Land showed a keen interest in Business at LSE where they were students wrote a review of a book (Business Cycles and National Income) for the Clare Market Review ( an LSE Student Journal) in November 1951. See below to download and read the review in a scanned document. Clare Market Review November 1951
For those interested in the content of the original book this is now freely available in electronic form at Business Cycles and National Income
Gavin Clarke describes the significance and development of LEO by Joseph Lyons and company. The link below is to the Article in the Register. Please note that when you access it first your view will be limited but if you register you will be able to read the whole document and see the images.