LEO editor

John Tomlinson  Died 2012,  LEO Operator, 1962 LEO II/1, 1966 LEO III/1
Career in computing.  Worked on LEO III as a programmer on Postmaster Accounting System – 1970/71 – and later for ICL on Post Office System 4 computers.  After leaving Post Office joined ICL Dataskill. 
Then various jobs with Corning, Thorn/EMI and Electrolux where he became IT Manager. Subsequently became responsible for Information Security
First for Northumbria Police and then Leicester.

From Simon Tomlinson: My Dad was John Tomlinson who worked for Leo during the 60`s. I was a very small boy. We lived in Marlow and Dad used to commute to London to Leo. 
My Dad was far more intelligent than me and had a great sense of humour. I have a couple of copies of `Myopic` which reflect this! There are a few quotes of my cheeky replies to him from certain situations at home which are lovely to have in black and white. 
I can`t tell you much, apart from the few attached photo`s as I was so small, but I do remember one funny story. Apparently,  one night shift worker had an air bed so that he could have a bit of a kip after a pub visit earlier on in the shift. Everyone would work extra hard to cover their colleagues `free time`. but, one night everyone came running out of the store room gasping after the offending worker had let the stale air out of his air bed after it had been inflated several days earlier after a few pints and a couple of ciggies! Dad ended up running the computer department for Leicester City Council and we moved up here in 1972. It was regretted by Dad in hindsight, but that is all in the past.

From Bob Stevenson: I knew your father well. We both worked as operators/shift leaders on the Leo III/1 computer, at Hartree House in Queensway, which figures in 3 of the photos you have, and often went for meals together in Queensway or Westbourne Park, where there was a great choice of restaurants. When I was Chief Op. I was asked to nominate someone to go to a Moscow computer show and help demonstrate a Leo III computer. Naturally I proposed John, who had all the necessary skills and was probably a bit more presentable than some of the other ops! I also remember that John took home one of the large punched card machines that were being scrapped and set it up in his garage, presumably hoping to have a profitable home business. I don’t know how it went but he didn’t give up his day job.

Peter Titman, died 2019 – Ann Titman, Peter’s widow writes
“I am writing to let you know that my husband Peter Titman died on Sunday 16th November. He designed the magnetic core for Leo 111, if I remember rightly, working with Dr Pinkerton. He left to join IBM and had a successful career in computing”

Colin Tully – 1936-2007 Joined LEO in 1960 after graduating with a degree in Economics from Cambridge.   University. Became very much involved with Software Development including coding the LEO III Master Routine. Subsequently mixed an academic career with consultancy and practice at Standard Telephone and Cables.  Had stints as an academic researcher at York University, Cranfield and the London School of Economics, finishing his career as Dean and Professor at Middlesex University.  Maintained his interest in LEO and its achievements via the LEO Foundation and the LEO Computers Society.
See CCH
http://comjnl.oxfordjournals.org/content/52/3/388.short
http://www.leo-computers.org.uk/images/colintullytribute.pdf

Tributes to Colin have been contributed by many of his colleagues and friends including Darren Dalcher, Brian Randell, Nigel Dolby, Adrian Rymell, Taz Daughtrey, Ian wand, Ralph LandPatricia McQuade and John Lindsay.  They have been collected in one document in archived in Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/5uljbewmvy15jy5zqs3r0/Colin-Tully-tributes-060108.doc?dl=0&rlkey=kq1ffmy4coiwr1om8p9g99put

Colin’s CV and other career details can be found in Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/zw946gi2wboj6mdzj302i/Colin-Tully-CVs.doc?dl=0&rlkey=dwj1k5rt92ph1u5n439c0fiij

Chris Tyson – Born 1941 in Scotland, died 1970. Joined LEO at Hartree House as a trainee programmer in September 1963.

Wallace Weaving – Born 1931, died 6^th November, 2012. Wallace joined EELM in the UK but was transferred to EELM in Australia early in 1963.  An account of his career was published in the Australian All Stars (ICL) magazine in 2013 and Can Be Viewed at CCH
Pam Garnsey (with some added and fond reflections from Neil Lamming, Mike Benton and Kent & Sheilagh Brooks)

Mike Webb – Died November 2015 at his home in Anglesey.  Joined LEO as a mathematician and operational research specialist.  After leaving LEO became an academic, first with the LSE and subsequently as head of business studies at Manchester Metropolitan University

 David John Wheeler FRS  (9 February 1927 – 13 December 2004)

David Wheeler, a member of the team at Cambridge University which built EDSAC under Maurice Wilkes, had the distinction of being the first person to be awarded a PhD in compute science in the UK in 1951.  He played an important role in the collaboration between Cambridge University and J. Lyons in the period starting in 1949 when the Lyons Board made the decision to go ahead with the design and construction of the first LEO computer.  In particular much of the systems software including the initial orders, the use of subroutines and relative addressing owe much to his invention and tuition. But he also experimented with Derek Hemy in drafting a payroll program to be tried on EDSAC.  He went on to have a distinguished career in Computing, became an FRS and held in international esteem.  He is included in the Dictionary of National Biography (ONNB), his profile written by Martin Campbell-Kelly published online 3^rd January 2008 and in print 5^th March 2009.  He is remembered in many obituaries and tributes including a biographical sketch on page 211 of  ‘LEO: The World’s First Business Computer’ by Peter J. Bird. His Oral History is held in the Babbage institute. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Wheeler_(computer_scientist)

Wilkes.html

Sir Maurice Wilkes  – 1913-2010  Maurice Wilkes, played a leading role in the design of the Cambridge University EDSAC Computer in the late 1940s and in return for some funding for that project from J. Lyons & Co, allowed the Lyons team to use the EDSAC design as the basis for LEO I, cooperating with the LEO team and helping in the selection of J. Pinkerton as the chief LEO Engineer.  He will be remembered as a good friend of LEO. His obituary was published online January 2014 by the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (ODNB), online written by Martin Campbell-Kelly/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Wilkes
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/nov/30/sir-maurice-wilkes-obituary
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/technology-obituaries/8171435/Professor-Sir-Maurice-Wilkes.html

Alex Williams.    (Words from Robert Timms)  — A number of Alex’s LEO and ICL colleagues were among the gathering of family and friends who celebrated Alex’s life in Melbourne on 28 March, a beautiful sunny autumn afternoon. Maurice Roberts gave a moving Reflection alongside the warm family tributes.
Alex was a great work colleague and a great friend to me, highly professional and well-liked by all including our clients, successful as a technician, then in project management and later on in sales. He became a staunch Aussie while remaining a passionate Welshman, a Rugby Union fanatic and a great family man.  
To quote part of the conclusion from his son Gavin’s fine eulogy:- “So Alex – a sports mad, tight-arsed, beetroot-hating, workaholic, cynic.  A brilliant childhood, a lovely wife, two lovely kids and 6 marvellous grandchildren.  A lucky life.   Some one who was just lucky. …. No dad, you embraced the opportunities that came your way with enthusiasm, hard work and integrity. Sure you had a lucky life, Dad, but you made your own luck too”.
See more on CCH

John Frank Winterbottom (1928-2017)

John Winterbottom spent almost 10 years working for LEO through its various reconfigurations, incorporating English Electric and Marconi, until further consolidation of the industry led to the merger with ICT and formation of ICL.  He joined LEO in 1960, working at Minerva Road as a Design Engineer under John Pinkerton.  He was involved in a wide range of research and development projects and regularly attended meetings of ECMA and later IEE standards committees.  Although John was an engineer by training and at heart, he was fascinated by the business opportunities that computing technology offered and the potential of improved interface design and speech recognition in facilitating interaction with machines. 

Along with a number of colleagues, John left Minerva Road in 1969, shortly before the site was closed following the creation of ICL.  He became General Manager (Engineering and Manufacture) with Farrington, an American data processing company which had a UK base in Havant, Hants at the time and whilst he enjoyed the many opportunities to spend time in the US that came with the job, they were short-lived as Farrington closed its UK operation in 1971.

John graduated from the University of Durham in 1952 with a BSc in Electrical Engineering and spent the following six years working in the motor industry, first with Joseph Lucas and then with the Motor Industry Research Association (MIRA) as a research engineer before his time at LEO.  He also completed an MSc at Birmingham University during this time.

After almost ten years in the computing industry, John moved into Higher Education, joining Portsmouth Polytechnic as a Senior Lecturer in Management and progressing from there to become Head of the School of Management Studies in 1979 at a time when it was moving into a new premises, purpose built to provide a base for residential programmes as well as established management programmes.  He was responsible for setting up and managing a series of bespoke programmes for the MoD, mainly concerned with Project Management and Defence Procurement, and another for the construction industry.  During the 1970s he was also active as a consultant and served on the IEE S6 Committee which dealt with Engineering Management.

John retired from full-time work in 1987 but continued to share his experience and enthusiasm for engineering by teaching a management module to first year engineering students at Southampton University until he and his wife, Joy, retired to their final home in Swanage, Dorset in 2000.  Even after their move he continued to maintain contact with professionals in both management and engineering through his involvement in various committees associated with his fellowships with the British Institute of Management and the IEE. 

John and his family have many fond memories of his time at LEO, including occasional visits to Minerva Road, and became particularly good friends with Ernest Lenaerts and his wife Gladys.  “Uncle Len”, as he was known to us, provided us with a supply of coloured paper tape to make into paper chains and delighted us all by somehow punching onto tape a repeating Happy Christmas message to us all one year.  Joy Winterbottom, John’s widow, has recently written to the society to say that John looked back with great pleasure to his days with LEO; he had many lasting friendships with colleagues from those days and thoroughly enjoyed the early LEO reunions.

John died in January 1917 after a long period of illness.  He is survived by his wife Joy, as well as their three children and their families.

Anne Moggridge, eldest daughter of John and Joy Winterbottom