Chris Metcalf
I fell out of secondary school at 16 in the late 1960s after failing most of my GCEs and
joined the Civil Service in central London filing bits of paper as a temporary clerical
officer. After failing to join ICL my father thankfully suggested I get a transfer (without
interview!) to the Census Office computer section at Eastcote London. On arrival I was
told I was a week early but as soon as I was introduced to the work I knew I was in the
right work area which lasted 25 years! As a computer operator on the LEO 3/10 I started
as peripheral loader (magnetic tapes, paper tape, printers) and when I got my Executive
Officer grade I was in charge of running the computer. We had very sociable evening
overtime sessions playing bridge whilst long computer programs ran. Typically four hour
magnetic tape sorts with no restarts! I recall the water cooling system barely coped in the
hot weather. I made my mark during a payroll run when a printer cheque number
sequence problem occurred, by altering the tape block count in binary using the
oscilloscope.
I later moved to the ICL 1904? computer on the same site and then transferred to the new
Fujitsu? 1905E and George 3 at Newport South Wales. On promotion to Higher
Executive Officer (only 1 in 5 applicants were successful I recall!) I headed the
Operations Systems Support section. I wrote a world first macro to allow files to be
deleted from an on screen list. 24 levels of nested IFs! Later moved on program system
support and programming and EU & UK project work. Not too bad a career for someone
who had few recognisable qualifications or had ever passed an aptitude test! I did get my
AMBCS and still working!
Memoirs
Ross Milbourne Memoir and Tribute to Lyons, LEO and its people.
I have lived and worked with computers in industry all of my life, and have now retired. It
has also been a lifelong hobby, as well as helping pay to bring up my family. The career I
followed, from COBOL Computer Programmer in the 1970s, to I.T. Director in large organisations
over the past 30 years, was founded by your father, David Caminer, and his colleagues at Lyons.
For that, I will always be grateful to him and the team, as well as deeply interested in what
people like David did in their lives, from which so much later sprang.
To make your mark in history, you normally have to be in the right place at the right time, with
the right equipment, education and ideas. However, you also have to be a very talented person in
your own right, or part of a talented team, to make the most of that opportunity and turn it into
a success. To make your mark in history, you normally have to be in the right place at the right
time, with the right equipment, education and ideas. However, you also have to be a very
talented person in your own right, or part of a talented team, to make the most of that
opportunity and turn it into a success.
I hold a Master’s Degree, with Distinction, in Computing – that was an absolute
pleasure to study for. In my retirement, I have had the opportunity to build a good vintage
computer collection, as well as a library of early publications about activity in the field. I
volunteer for museums like the CCH at Cambridge, and have restored some of their early
‘home’ computers, such as the Altair 8800s and IMSAI 8080, for public display and
demonstration. I understand that they have also carried out a good deal of work related to
LEO in the past few years.
For my part, I have gradually accumulated more material about LEO during this
period, including collecting a few of the ‘standard’ books on the subject, and I have loved
reading about it. As I have delved deeper, I have come across other articles and material to
add to my understanding and, finally, tripped across ‘LEOPEDIA’ on the Internet. What
an amazing resource!
I quickly recognised that ‘LEO Remembered – by the people who worked on the
world’s first business computers’ was a ‘must have’ that was missing from my collection
on the subject: hence my request to obtain a copy from you.
On a private note, I have a couple of letters in my collection from John Simmons to
Richard Sharpe, the editor of ‘Computing’ Magazine, back in 1979. These were contained
in Richard’s personal copy of: ‘LEO and the Managers’, published by John Simmons, that
came onto the open market recently.
They mention David Caminer, when he was living in Luxembourg, apparently.
‘Computing’ were clearly wanting to talk to David about his experiences for articles they
were writing at that time, given it was the ‘Silver Jubilee’ of LEO. John Simmons had
offered to get in touch with David for them, to gauge to what degree he might like to
participate.
Ten days later, came the reply, which John quotes as follows:
“Of course, pleased to give what help I can to the project you mention. Unhappily, most of
the earlier papers of LEO programming seem to have perished in one of those necessary
but sometimes destructive clearances of the filing areas. It wasn’t easy to know thirty
years ago that they should have been given the retention classification of ‘infinity’ as
historic documents!”. How prophetic those words sound now, another 40 years later.
Archived in Dropbox at
https://www.dropbox.com/s/ylqayspiuic8437/Ross%20Milbourne%20memoir.htm?
dl=0
Peter Mills, Memoirs
After National Service, where he was first involved and trained in electronic
engineering, and being demobbed in 1954, Peter responded to an advertisement placed by
Lyons for a job as an electronic/mechanical engineer. Following an aptitude test Peter was
offered a job to join LEO. He spent the next few years helping to keep first LEO I and
then LEO II machines operating. Though leaving LEO Computers he returned to the LEO
fold by joining the LEO team at the Ilford LEO II. In his memoir he tells of his pride of
having worked with LEO.
Repository: Dropbox.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/q0sdhjgrh3e05m6/Peter%20Mills%20Memoirs.docx?dl=
0
Andrew Murison, Northwhich. I have just read your article in the February issue of Third Age Matters – I am a member of the Winsford, Cheshire, U3A. In the 1950s and 1960s I worked at Stewarts and Lloyds Ltd. Corby steelworks, who installed a Leo computer in 1958. A school friend of mine, having graduated in mathematics also worked at the steelworks as a programmer on this computer and although I was an engineer and had no official connection with the computer I was shown round by my friend – who was called John Lamb. I remember the “air conditioning” system quite well as my father (now deceased) worked in the S&L new development electrical dept. The “solar gain”(sunlight) on the large picture windows plus the heat produced by the electrical equipment in the computer building caused all the thermal overloads to trip out – stopping the computer. The quickest installation to cool the building was then installed!
Over the years I have lost touch with him so can-not help you as to his whereabouts. In the 1980s the Corby steelworks was demolished and no longer exists but the tube works section was retained in working order (and still is) The tube works is now owned by Tata. Tata have an archive section based at their Shotton works and may have information. The other possible source of information is the Corby Heritage Centre. I have a booklet about Stewarts and Lloyds steelworks which has a picture of the computer and have enclosed a copy.
Robert Murphy. was the computer programmer on the LEO 326 computer in use for the National Savings Bank in Glasgow. I used Intercode and CLEO. The computer was decommissioned in 1974 with the data and systems transferred to an ICL 4/72.
My final task was to print off computer programs and documentation, label them up and package them for sending to the National Savings Archives. If I recall correctly there was a similar exercise going on with the hardware but I was not involved with that.
So there was lots of material kept but I do not know what became of it. It might be worthwhile contacting NS&I to find out what happened to the material and whether you can have it for your project
John Oates, I was involved in Systems Design on the Ford Motors Leo 2/11 between 1960 to its decommissioning on the instructions of FORD US to go IBM. In this time I was mainly responsible for a system to control and monitor the introduction of new models which resulted in a massive elapsed time reduction to launch. If you have any interest, feel free to eMail or call – 01242 239647
Chris Parker, I worked at J Lyons from February 1971 to 1976. My first job was working on the LEO 3/7 and LEO 4/6. I was an operator during the conversion to an IBM365/65 over my first 6 months and, when all the systems had been copied (via a System 4 deck), the LEOs were deconstructed. I have, somewhere in the loft, a circuit board from the LEO 4/6. I read your article in the U3A magazine with interest. I’m not sure what memories I have that have not already come to your attention, but I would be happy to discuss them with you – if you are interested?
W.E.J. (John) Parry.
Abstract: Employed by Stewarts and Lloyds originally as engineer on their LEOII/3 computer and subsequently as programmer. Had received training as electrical engineer while doing extended National Service in RAF and in that capacity witnesses UK H bomb tests in Pacific Islands. Joined Stewarts and Lloyds at Corby after National Service and was transferred to help run the LEOII. Two mathematical jobs, Anchor problem and Best Mix ( “mineral job” ) were totally self-contained jobs that I had little or nothing to do with. Also if I remember correctly neither jobs were significantly modified to take advantage of the later addition of the Ferranti drum, which if my memory is correct had a significant impact on the performance and running of the payroll suite. Because these two jobs were considered as “extra demanding” the operations staff used to advise us engineers when they were going to run these two jobs and when I was the duty engineer I used to go and listen to these two jobs running because they generated a totally different “music” to that we heard when running payroll. We engineers learnt a lot from the “music” during 30 mins or so of morning tests and this gave us a clue to how the system was behaving! For S&L Corby the payroll was the major financial justification so why am I emphasizing these two jobs when I knew so little of what were their commercial value to the overall LEO justification I believe S&L in Corby in the early 1950s were an advanced and forward thinking company. So bearing in mind the open mindedness of the Lyons management I suppose no surprise or justification to the S&L LEO II purchase but just showed how forward thinking a company Stewarts and Lloyds was.
Subsequently joined ICL. Has recently contributed to the Corby Heritage events commemorating, inter alia, to their story of LEO at Stewart & Lloyds. Provided two articles for the May 2018 “Legends” event, including John’s Story.
W.E.J. (John) Parry : Read More »
John Panter LEO Engineers responding to Request to identify computer depicted in MGM 1968 film “Hot Million” starring Peter Ustinov as criminal computer operator, see entry in Film section below.
This brought back a few memories! I can make a few comments.
1. I didn’t know Fred Whittaker. I moved from Minerva Rd to Kidsgrove in summer 1965, so left before he joined.
2. The decks shown in the first picture are definitely Potter M120 drives. This is a link to the 1964 Potter catalogue I discovered:- Potter Catalogue See page 4. These were used on late LEO III machines. Previously we used Ampex decks. The Potter decks were never used on System 4; we developed our own 4452 and 4453 decks.
3. A far as I am aware, there was never an ICL machine M505. I think this was MGM using a non-attributable name. This link gives a bit more information about the use of our equipment in the film.
http://www.starringthecomputer.com/appearance.html?f=543&c=288
4. The photo on Page 3 is definitely of the System 4 4453 high speed tape drive. (150 “/sec). I was transferred to Kidsgrove as the Project Manager for the design and development of this product. I have attached a copy of the marketing photo from which this was copied. The guy is a young (then) electronics engineer, Les Oliver, who worked for me on the project. You can see his hand on the logic rack.
5. I can’t definitively confirm any other details, but I would guess that this was a later LEO 326, one that was built specifically for the Post Office. But MGM have done quite a lot to disguise it. I do not recognise it as a System 4!
Chris Parker, I worked at J Lyons from February 1971 to 1976. My first job was working on the LEO 3/7 and LEO 4/6. I was an operator during the conversion to an IBM365/65 over my first 6 months and, when all the systems had been copied (via a System 4 deck), the LEOs were deconstructed. I have, somewhere in the loft, a circuit board from the LEO 4/6. I read your article in the U3A magazine with interest. I’m not sure what memories I have that have not already come to your attention, but I would be happy to discuss them with you – if you are interested?