Memoirs

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.

John Paschoud on printing Braille programmes. See also Tom Brooks above. I don’t know if I can add much to the Blind Programmers story. I never actually met any (of theblind programmers), and I think it must actually have been when I was Ops SDPO at Barbican NDPS Computer Centre (which was trials and EE System4, rather than production and LEO326, with most of the programmer teams based at Docos House a short distance away). But they were very similar to the barrel line-printers on the 326s at Charles House, Kensington CC. The process involved fitting a rubber sheet about 0.5mm thick between the hammer array and paper, and removing the ink ribbon, so that printing dots in Braille code would leave raised dots on the paper. Then adjusting the hammer force carefully so they didn’t actually puncture the paper.
I used the same technique a few years later, on a much later timesharing mainframe (a DECSystem-10) because a completely blind little boy joined the Cub Scout pack where my wife was a leader. So we found software to translate the text of some of the Cub Scout Handbook into Braille, and I made a Braille-print kit for our lineprinter and ‘borrowed’ it for a few evenings.

Tony Priest, visited Cambridge Centre for Computer History, May 2018 and was really happy to hear about partnership with LEO Computers Society and LEO heritage plans. He worked at Hartree House. He was employed as LEO II was being decommissioned and worked on LEO III there. He left a comment on our Facebook page over the weekend: “What a nostalgic visit! The Centre is doing great work to preserve so much that is important, especially the vital importance of the pioneering British computer industry. From the LEO displays – my first job was programming for LEO III – to the development of home computers and games consoles. The incredible computer power now available at such low cost. Keep it up please. And all the best for your Lottery funding bid for the LEO archive material project.

Geoff Pye: Sporting Reminiscences

Tennis.

LEO had a team of 6 made up of 3 pairs, organised by John Gosden, to play other Lyons Departments on the courts at Lyons sports club. On each occasion each pair played one set against each one of the other department’s 3 pairs thus totalling 9 sets. The tournament was spread over several weeks, one department opponent at a time. My partner was usually Earnest Roberts. Other team members included Alan Jacobs, Joe Crouch, a New Zealander whose name escapes me – all programmers – and Charlie O’Brien, an operator. Leo’s performances were “average”!
Cricket.
I remember playing a couple of matches, but do not recollect LEO matches being a regular feature, so probably not a league competition. TRT was an enthusiastic, agitated and critical spectator! Doug Comish was in the team and he may recall more details.

Cynthia Reid, I was born in Headingley, Leeds in 1935 and from an early age had an
interest in science which was encouraged by my parents. I attended Brudenell Primary
School, Bennett Road Junior School and Leeds Girls’ High School. In 1954 I was offered
Exhibitions to both Oxford and Cambridge Universities and I elected to read Mathematics
at Newnham College, Cambridge. At the end of my first year I switched to Mechanical
Sciences and graduated in 1957 at which time I was recruited by John Pinkerton to work
in LEO’s engineering design department at Minerva Road in Park Royal, Northwest
London. I had little knowledge of electronics or computers but it seemed an interesting
challenge and I was there for four years until moving on to IBM. There were no other
women engineers at Minerva Road, but this was a situation I was entirely accustomed to
and never really thought about. I had been the only female undergraduate in the 2000-
strong Engineering Faculty at Cambridge, the first and only woman member of the
Cambridge University Air Squadron (I believe there were no more until the 1980s), the
only female pilot at Yeadon (now Leeds and Bradford) Flying Club where I got a
scholarship to attain my PPL whilst still at school and the only woman in the LEO motor
cycling group where I rode a scarlet Norton 600cc Dominator. I guess being ‘the only one’
was just a fact of life that I accepted without question – and I am happy to say that I have
never experienced prejudice on this account (although I did have to ceaselessly pester the
Air Ministry for 2 years before I was finally accepted into the Air Squadron – even with
my pilot licence). At Minerva Road I worked on the very early attempts at OCR (optical
character recognition) where we were trying to design an input device which retail
departments could use to order stock from a wholesale or central distributor. I think we
just about managed to detect a very thick black pencil stroke across a precisely
circumscribed quarter-inch square! It was an exciting time in that we were moving from
thermionic valves and mercury delay line storage to transistors, printed circuit boards and
solid state memory. I think I still have somewhere the soldering iron I was issued on my
first day at Minerva Road! The only names I recall of my days there were my immediate
manager John Bruce, our lab assistant Ernie Aylott and a couple of fellow design
engineers Ivan Boskov and Yoram Azar.

Cynthia Reid, a member of the Cambridge
University Air Squadron, at the controls of a De Havilland Chipmunk in 1956, shortly
before she joined LEO
https://www.dropbox.com/s/7laoprvaell0b1a/Cynthia%20Reed%20Memoir.docx?dl=0

Chris Reynolds Born 23 March 1938 in Hertfordshire. Brought up in Somerset &
Devon; Six schools attended before age of 13. Dartington Hall School, Totnes, Devon
1952-56 (very progressive and unconventional). University College London 1956-1959 –
BSc in Chemistry. Exeter University 1959-1962 – PhD in Theoretical Organic
Chemistry. After starting a career as an Information Officer at a public institution decided
on a career move – for a higher salary – with Shell-Mex & PB in 1965 as a programmer
working on their LEO III computer, but joined EELM as a Systems analyst/ sales
consultant in 1967.. Worked on a number of projects but became dissatisfied with the way
applications were described. He proposed the development of a language (first named
DORIS later extended and renamed CODIL) designed for users being able to define their
own systems and interested the LEO management in its development. Joined Pinkerton’s
team in Minerva Road for further work on his notions. Despite progress EELM did not
take the ideas further and in 1970 Chris left, first for a job with Plessey as a systems
analyst and then in 1971 joined Brunel University to start an academic career, finishing in
1988 with the title Reader. Much of his research was focused on the development of
CODIL resulting in a spate of Conference presentations and Journal articles. Ill health and
poor relations with new head of department led to early retirement followed by some
lecturing at De Montford University and much local history work in Hertfordshire , but
also some further work on CODIL. Active member of LEO Computers Society . See
https://www.dropbox.com/s/jt6vmfovwjumamm/Chris%20Reynolds%20Career%20History.docx?dl=0

Dropbox link broken

Mike Smith, Trivial Reminiscences of a LEO Man. Mike had two separate
careers with Lyons. From 1952 to 1959 working in the Bakery Division, leaving Lyons for
what proved a bad choice, selling insurance, and returning in 1960 as an Operator on LEO,
first in Elms House on LEO II and later transferred to Hartree House to work on LEO II/5
and LEO III. Appointed shift-leader after 10 months and later promoted to Chief Operator
under Bob Woodward. Subsequently asked to lead a team in the new role of acting as
operating consultants to LEO clients. The interesting reminiscence are filed in Dropbox at:
https://www.dropbox.com/preview/LEO%20Oral%20History%20project/LEO%20Memoi
rs%2C%20Reminiscences%20and%20Anecdotes/Mike%20Smith%20reminiscences.doc?
role=personal
or can be obtained on request from Frank Land – f.land@lse.ac.uk

Dropbox link broken

Ray Smith, Reminiscences of a LEO III Operator and Intercode
Programmer
Ray started as a trainee operator on the LEO III/4 in Greenwich for the London Boroughs’
Joint Computer Committee (LBJCC) in 1966. He progressed to a senior operator before
joining the London Boroughs’ Management Services Unit (LBMSU) in 1968 as a trainee
Intercode programmer. The LBMSU provided the programmers for the LBJCC. After his
training course, he was posted to the North London satellite unit which looked after three,
later four, North London boroughs with LEO III/94. He was not very happy about being
posted to the sticks as he regarded it at the time. However, not long afterward the North
London boroughs severed their relationship and his unit became independent. This put
him into a fairly senior position overnight. Now he was happy. A couple of years later
this unit became the London On-Line Local Authorities, moved to Enfield and installed an
IBM machine. Ray was then sent on an IBM PL/1 course. In due course, he rose to the
Principal Programmer position. Around 1977 he moved to work for Lloyd’s of London
where he stayed until 1998 becoming the General Manager of the Systems Development
group and finally in charge of development, operations, networking and
telecommunications. He retired in 2002 after spending a few years as a consultant mainly
for JP Morgan.
My view is that for its time the LEO architecture was brilliant and Intercode was a very
significant step forward over its rather elegant (in my opinion) Machine code. It also
stood the test of time lasting into the late 70s.
As an operator, I found the machine itself a very rewarding challenge to get the best out of
it, but get the best out of it we did (well some of us). For instance: understanding how the
Master allocated valuable core storage. If the operator loaded programs in a non-optimum
way that would limit the number of programs that could be running concurrently at any
time; forward planning to have tapes ready from the tape store ahead of time that they
were needed to be loaded; having the correct stationery loaded in the printer ahead of time
if possible; many etceteras.
My chief operator (who didn’t operate) would go through the computer log daily to check
how efficiently the console operator had performed the day/night before. Indeed, he
worked out roughly how much every minute of machine time cost. In pound note terms, it
did bring to life how much say, a twenty-minute rerun cost due to an operator error or a
five-minute delay finding and loading a correct tape cost. Those that did the least well
would find themselves more often than not, decollating 2- or 3-part stationary, chopping
and packing payslips and other non-standard items. Those were jobs to be detested and a
useful sanction. It certainly spurred me on to become a good operator (sorry to boast, but it
is true).
Also, it was also remarkably reliable for its time (LEO III). You couldn’t always say that
about the quality of some of the programs though. Here I mean user programs
As a programmer, Intercode, which at first seemed difficult, soon became easy once
you managed to come to grips with its structures and operators. Like operating the LEO,
the real challenge was efficiency, but here it was in terms of how to write programs as
small and reliably as possible so as to utilize best the limited resources of the machine and
to minimize run times whilst leaving intelligible code behind for some future programmer
to understand and amend. Oh, and I nearly forgot, accurately to perform the functions
from the users’ specifications. This was fun!
I had little experience of CLEO, but it seemed bloated compared with Intercode at a time
when computer storage and machine cycles were at a premium and verbose to work
with. I bet there were some heated discussions at the time about whether to go via the
Intercode route or directly into computer code. I expect expediency won. Anyone know
out there?
It did lead to having to have twelve overlays to compile; six for CLEO and six for the
Intercode. Fascinating to watch as an operator the tapes doing merry dances going
forward, rewinding, searching, running back etc. Had there been disk storage available
though …
My view (not original) is that high-level languages could not have their time until
main storage, disk storage and machine cycles were virtually unlimited compared to the
time of the LEOs. What a shame they could not have been developed further once those
things became available. The CLEO would have been more in its element.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6jdj47pzt3pbtb8/Ray%20Smith%20Reminiscences.docx?dl=0

Ray Smith, Reminiscences of a LEO III Operator and Intercode
Programmer
Ray started as a trainee operator on the LEO III/4 in Greenwich for the London Boroughs’
Joint Computer Committee (LBJCC) in 1966. He progressed to a senior operator before
joining the London Boroughs’ Management Services Unit (LBMSU) in 1968 as a trainee
Intercode programmer. The LBMSU provided the programmers for the LBJCC. After his
training course, he was posted to the North London satellite unit which looked after three,
later four, North London boroughs with LEO III/94. He was not very happy about being
posted to the sticks as he regarded it at the time. However, not long afterward the North
London boroughs severed their relationship and his unit became independent. This put
him into a fairly senior position overnight. Now he was happy. A couple of years later
this unit became the London On-Line Local Authorities, moved to Enfield and installed an
IBM machine. Ray was then sent on an IBM PL/1 course. In due course, he rose to the
Principal Programmer position. Around 1977 he moved to work for Lloyd’s of London
where he stayed until 1998 becoming the General Manager of the Systems Development
group and finally in charge of development, operations, networking and
telecommunications. He retired in 2002 after spending a few years as a consultant mainly
for JP Morgan.
My view is that for its time the LEO architecture was brilliant and Intercode was a very
significant step forward over its rather elegant (in my opinion) Machine code. It also
stood the test of time lasting into the late 70s.
As an operator, I found the machine itself a very rewarding challenge to get the best out of
it, but get the best out of it we did (well some of us). For instance: understanding how the
Master allocated valuable core storage. If the operator loaded programs in a non-optimum
way that would limit the number of programs that could be running concurrently at any

Eileen Smith Role in Lyons included filling out Lector Forms. I read your article in the
magazine with great interest having worked
for J Lyons and Strand Hotels. November 1962 I joined the company as a trainee
supervisor in the Corner Houses under the direction of Miss Clancy and Mrs Silverlock. It
was a 9 month programme followed by a posting to one of the units. I went to The Grill
and Cheese and The trolley Restaurants at the Tottenham Court
Branch. Miss Brett was the House Manager. As part of my training I had to learn how to
complete the Leo time sheets. I don’t remember too much other than we had to use a
particular strength of graphite pencil and only fill in the brackets[sausages[ very carefully.
If you went over the bracket then wrong payments were made.
I enjoyed my time with the company but moved on to manage a restaurant
having completed a 3 year full time programme on Hotel Management before
coming to London for work. I did a further 5 years with Strand Hotels before the takeover
by THF as a Personnel and Training Manager with the Albany Group.
I still have contacts with former Strand Hotel Colleagues and when the
Regent Palace closed its doors I attended the Grand Finale . We all came
away with a DVD of the history of the company which I think I still have
tucked away somewhere.
Hope this info. may be of some interest although I am not a computer boffin.
Tony Carrol Operator at Wills Tobacco
My involvement with LEO started when I was a schoolboy. I had taken my “O” levels and
was going into the 6th form but I wanted to mix Classics and Science and was told in no
uncertain terms that this was not possible. I could not just do Science as the only chemistry
exam I passed was by ignoring the H2O s etc and just concentrated on the maths. I thought
this was NOT chemistry. So I ended up doing Classics which did not suit me.
Through a friend of my mother’s I went for a job as a statistician but did not get it (thank
goodness) and then I heard that there ware vacancies for trainee computer operators in W.
D. & H. O. Wills. This sounded interesting and I was fortunate to be taken on and started
in September 1959 ( on £265 per annum ). I rapidly progressed up to Shift Leader and
stayed doing that role until 1969/70 the boss of the department (Bob Brett, with whom I
am still in touch today) wanted to move me to Systems and Programming. And so I moved
, thoroughly enjoying that time, and stayed in IT until I retired for the second time in
2003(?).
One interesting occurrence happened on 10th July 1968, but cannot be part of my talk on
LEO, was that our computer (a KDF9 by this time) was flooded to a depth of about two
feet. As luck would have it, the workload on another KDF9 had just been transferred onto
an IBM 360 (?) and this empty KDF9 was only about 7 or 8 miles from our site. We used
it for one month, burning out the motor on a brand new printer in that month, and then
returned to “our” KDF9 which had been successfully returned to life with, I believe, only
two new boards. I also remember that we only lost a few mag tapes.