{"id":7051,"date":"2023-11-26T13:58:54","date_gmt":"2023-11-26T13:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/?p=7051"},"modified":"2023-11-26T13:58:55","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T13:58:55","slug":"chris-metcalf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/chris-metcalf\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Metcalf<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Chris Metcalf<\/strong>
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!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris MetcalfI fell out of secondary school at 16 in the late 1960s after failing most of my GCEs andjoined the Civil Service in central London filing bits of paper as a temporary clericalofficer. After failing to join ICL my father thankfully suggested I get a transfer (withoutinterview!) to the Census Office computer section at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7051","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-memoirs"],"yoast_head":"\nChris Metcalf - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.leo-computers.org.uk\/leopedia.org\/chris-metcalf\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chris Metcalf - LEOPEDIA EDITORIAL SYSTEM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chris MetcalfI fell out of secondary school at 16 in the late 1960s after failing most of my GCEs andjoined the Civil Service in central London filing bits of paper as a temporary clericalofficer. 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