Memoirs

I am eighty years old and not in very good health at the moment.
I started my career in computers by learning to program in basic machine code
and Intercode, on a Leo II at Whitely house in London in 1959/60.
In fact I wrote, in machine code, the ‘Boot strap’ program to load up and start the
operating system running for Leo III.
The company I was working for, a subsidiary of the South African mining house Rand
Mines, took delivery on one LEO III.
Leo Fantl pays tribute to her contribution, as the first programmer recruited by him in
South Africa in chapter 25 of the Incredible Story Of the First Business Computer

Alan Wakefield: On 21 Jun 2019, at 19:56, Alan Wakefield wrote: Dear Hilary, Your note below has prompted me to offer a personal reminiscence of LEO-related activity, or more specifically LEO personnel – related events, and relating in particular to your father, David Caminer. ( If you will permit this!). I was not an original LEO person, but, originally as an early 60’s ICT recruit, I had the good fortune, in the late 1960’s/70’s, to work in a group led by David in the newly – formed ICL New Range Planning Group in ICL House, Putney, shortly after the formation of the ICL merger of the former ICT and EELM ( and other subsids.) British computer companies. David’s role and contribution to this phase of ICL’s development is well documented and applauded. I have an amusing (I hope) small episode during my time in that group, which I hope may be of interest to you, and some others. For reasons undisclosed to me at that time, part of our NR planning activities required ICL to partake in some discussions with the French computer industry, in connection with theirPlan Calcul, and their CII computer company, based near Versailles, west of Paris, as I recall. (There was a lot of political activity in Europe at that time with the proposals to form a “European” computer organisation involving the French, German and Italian computer companies ; but not initially the British!)
A small group of four(?) of us from ICL, led by David (I can’t recall the other two
participants) were delegated to go to CII ( Paris ) and have some exploratory discussions;
I’m not sure about what, but it was probably about whether ICL could participate in the
joint European plans, and whether any of their products or technology had relevance for
ICL’s New Range plans.
We set off from Putney, in David’s company car ( as I recall a Ford Zephyr 6 of the
period; very angular and dark green? (actually yellow: Editor) The vehicle was an
adapted automatic to facilitate David’s driving), with David driving us “ in spirited style”
( we were late!) to Heathrow airport for a flight to Paris.
The next stages are a bit hazy, but we arrived and were accommodated near Versailles (
which was close to the Bull/ CII works complex.) The following day we were taken to the
CII complex for a series of meetings and viewings of the facility, and tour of the site.
Whilst walking around the facilities, David was in full flow animated conversation with
their senior executives ( we were following in the rear!). Passing through one of the areas,
he tripped slightly, and then keeled over gracefully, but immediately bounced back up on
the rebound, rather like a rubber ball, and without any break in the flow of conversation! (
We from ICL were, of course, not unfamiliar with David’s occasional “tumbles” with his
prosthetic leg). The French were gobsmacked and bewildered at this; after that episode,
the they could not do enough to accommodate whatever requirements our delegation had
on CII and David was celebrated as the war hero he was.
I don’t think the talks finally led to anything for ICL, but the episode certainly gave us in
ICL more fine anecdotal material about a fine gentlemen, on which to reminisce!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fqzvpc5ftyle00w/Alan%20Wakefield%20reminiscence

Harry Warner: I worked as an operator on the CAV – Lucas, Leo III at
Acton (High Street ?) from October 1963 to April 1964.
One of my clearest (and dearest) memories is of a blond haired engineer (from
Somerset?) who would get the printer to “play” God Save the Queen.
I later programmed on the IBM 360 at Castrol, became Manager of Computer
Services at Lever Bros. Canada and later was a Professor of Business Computing at
Ryerson University in Toronto.
I retired at age 47 and live on a small commune in BC.

Tony Weber: LEO Australia. “I was in the founding management group
(Accountant/finance director) of the Australian subsidiary in the early 1960’s under the
management of Peter Gyngell.
I had 25 years service with the Leo/ICL group of Companies, which then lead to another
30 years in the industry including service in Hong Kong then Boston USA. I spent the last
18 years up to 2015 on the Board of the public Company Prophecy International Limited;
an Australian listed software Company.
I have great memories of Leo, and the service it provided to the Australian business
community in the early computer days, and enriched employment to 100’s of staff in the
IT industry.”

Tony Weber: LEO Australia. “I was in the founding management group
(Accountant/finance director) of the Australian subsidiary in the early 1960’s under the
management of Peter Gyngell.
I had 25 years service with the Leo/ICL group of Companies, which then lead to another
30 years in the industry including service in Hong Kong then Boston USA. I spent the last
18 years up to 2015 on the Board of the public Company Prophecy International Limited;
an Australian listed software Company.
I have great memories of Leo, and the service it provided to the Australian business
community in the early computer days, and enriched employment to 100’s of staff in the
IT industry.”

Geoff Weston, I read your piece in U3A Matters with great interest as I believe that I
was involved with the first use of computing in the civil engineering industry. I worked
for John Laing Ltd. (now Laing O’Rourke) under John Mason who was Project
Surveyor. In ’58/’59 I was a very junior surveyor on the London to Yorkshire motorway
(M1) when a capable body was needed for a boring but important task. I drew, on
specially printed pro-forma sheets, cross sectional profiles of the construction at 100 foot
intervals (chainages) of our “B” section from Ampthill to North of Newport Pagnell,
about 650 in total. I added all the data points numerically and passed these sheets to the
boss who combined them with other three sections and sent them to Cadby Hall where
this enormous piece of kit called Leo worked out the total volumes of soil cut out, placed
in cuttings, spread as topsoil etc.etc. This was to check the Ministry of Transport’s
figures and I understand that there was a significant difference therefore value. I never
heard anything more about this and it seems to have escaped into the mists of time. By
coincidence, my grandfather, uncle and other relatives worked at Cadby Hall.

Fred Whittaker I was a low person in the scheme of things at Minerva Road 1966-68. I
had a sort of admin role to perform which meant strolling around the various engineering
offices weekly and asking questions about timeliness of process. This was logged and
forwarded to a higher office in Kidsgrove. I guess it helped the chief engineers to plan
the end products. I had other duties to do. One was to receive engineering changes to
the display mainframe together with the parts to be installed…usually minor. My
dilemma was that I was not qualified to do any installation and the engineers had their
work to do. I had to ask any engineer available on the floor to do it for me. It always
worked. A bit off the cuff you might say.
That probably summarizes my work life there…lots of odd duties without a particular job
description.
When the end came and we all lost our jobs I got hurt, injured my spine, and was
hospitalized and off sick for months. The company continued to pay my salary until I
was well and found another job. My hat off to them.
One time I was phoned by MGM films who were enquiring about renting a main frame
for the film Hot Millions, starring Peter Ustinov and Maggie Smith. It was about a main
frame being compromised by some freak occurrence and millions being siphoned away.
Ustinov being the happy operator. The MGM producers came to Minerva Road to look
around and saw the Spectra 70…I think it was…..which was all glossy and new but only
there for testing and showing to potential buyers. I had to tell them that it wasn’t
available for hire and they had to settle for a second generation main frame which looked
dowdy and was full of external cables etc. The post office had bought a few I
believe? (Editor, actually a LEO 326, 3d generation computer) They agreed to rent that
plus an engineer to maintain it and so it went forward. I saw the film later and it wasn’t
very good.
I had a very good time there at Minerva rd, and by meeting so many gifted engineers had
an education nearly every day.
A few of our colleagues were installing a main frame in Ostrava Czechoslovakia when
the Soviet army invaded and took over the country. I believe it was a coal mine or coal
industry that had bought the machine. Our colleagues were eventually brought home
after some delay. No harm done…although I never heard anything more about the main
frame or if it was paid for.
I have no photos of my time there except for some photos of a cricket match between the
ladies and gentlemen. Plus a couple of photos of the Joe Lyons rugby team playing at the
Greenford ground. Nice memories.
After I left Minerva Road I worked at Ultra electronics until they also laid off about 300
people. I then thought I would go to another country and get laid off there. I applied to
Canada and arrived there in July 1970. I have been in Canada ever since. I now live in
Sooke on Vancouver island BC.
My main employment was for the Ontario government in the Ministry of
Community and Social something in Toronto. After eight years they made it clear that I had
no further use to them. I got the message and quit. I had saved up enough money to
buy a franchise in the printing industry and so I travelled to Long Island NY for a two
week intensive course. Back in Toronto I opened up for business hired a pressman and
hit the businesses around for work. This was successful for twenty years until at 61 I sold
the business and the unit I had bought earlier and retired.
I got married in 1990 and lived in suburban Toronto until retirement when we sold up
and drove west to BC in 1999.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cxntixmcw30spej/Fred%20Whittaker%20memoir.doc?dl=0
More from Fred Whittaker
Here are some images of yesteryear. Bottom right is myself in my office in Minerva rd
pulling the strings on Mon General. The others are three images of Robin Stanley Jones
and Linda on their wedding day on the Thames somewhere. Also pictured is Nigel
something by Robin’s Borzoi. His wife is the central figure standing. Nigel was on the
commissioning of Leo Three in Czechoslovakia when the Russkies invaded.
Nigel and his wife coincidentally met me again in Toronto where he was playing Rugby
by Lake Ontario. They later moved west to Kitchener..I think..and then lost touch.
The others pictured maybe other employees or friends…can’t say. The lettering on the
wall is letraset by me.
I hope you find these interesting and if you want better images I can do that.

Pat Whitaker Joined Cerebos Foods Limited – a LEO III customer – in 1964 – after
graduating with an honours degree in mathematics. Pat had taken the LEO aptitude test
before the job offer and taken the LEO programming course at Hartree House. Pat
worked on the Cerebos sales invoicing suite using Intercode. In 1967 Cerebos replaced
its LEO III with a System 4 computer

Michael Wilson Currently lives in Canada. I joined Leo in 1961 at Minerva Road. I had
just graduated from Teachers College and in those days a teacher was at the bottom of any
salary scale. So I applied for and was hired as an Instructor for the LEO III Field
Engineering Training School. Soon I was Manager of Leo 3 and KDP 10 training. I had
gone to Kidsgrove to learn the KDP 10 and then taught the first class in London. I worked
for Reg Allen and then John Wheeler, who I think are still members of our alumni, as I am
still in touch with Reg who lives in Dawlish. Until recently I still had Marketing Brochures
for Leo 3 and Leo 326 and the Lector and an organisation chart of the School! I took them
two years ago to San Jose when I was to meet Dag Spicer at the Museum of Computing.
Unfortunately, due to some health problem, we did not meet. However, now cannot find
them!!! After over 55 years!!! I will keep searching for them

Reminiscences in 2 parts. Part 1 Life with LEO, part 2 pre and post LEO career
Joined LEO: 1960
Role in LEO: Design Engineer working with John Pinkerton
Abstract: John had a long career as a design engineer in the electronics industry,
starting as electrician in the RAF after leaving School having specialised in Science and
Maths. Followed up with Degree at Durham University. Later took MSc at Birmingham
specialising in solid state physics and digital computing. Employed first by Lucas/CAV
and then MIRA was head hunted to join the Data Recording and Instrument Company as
Chief Engineer, a company associated with ICT. Left after contract dispute in 1960 to
join LEO to work with John Pinkerton. Associated with a number of high level projects
including a Government sponsored project on data transmission for the coming network
age. Also heavily involved with the establishment of standards working with ECMA.Left LEO
in 1969 as he felt the creation of ICL had emasculated the innovative LEO
research team. Joined Farrington – another specialist in data recording, working partly in
the USA. Finished career working in management department of Portsmouth
Polytechnic. John provides a fascinating account of life as an enthusiastic design
engineer as well as his appraisal of the people he worked with at LEO.
Repository: Dropbox Part 1
https://www.dropbox.com/s/pj9tnpi5dt36tqh/John%20Winterbottom%20Memoir.doc?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/search/personalpath=%2F&preview=John+Winterbottom+Memoirs.doc&qsi=73188041692784938776139646353975&query=winterbottom&search_token=maaZCi5EZfs9ghMHde3MaOmE5gIkeIs7mVlUbNhfSkQ%3D
Part 2
https://www.dropbox.com/search/personal?path=%2F&preview=John+Winterbottom+memoirs+2.doc&qsid=73188041692784938776139646353975&query=winterbottom&search_token=maaZCi5EZfs9ghMHde3MaOmE5gIkeIs7mVlUbNhfSkQ%3D
Copyright: LEO Computers Society
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