David Tresman Caminer, OBE

On Wednesday, September 11th some 100 people attended a series of talks and a debate which celebrated the life of David Caminer OBE. It was a splendid event which successfully covered David's full and eventful life and his tremendous contribution to business computing. David's widow, Jackie, his daughters and two grandsons were also present, his daughter Hilary gave one of the speeches.

The LEO community are grateful to the Computer Conservation Society and the Science Museum for hosting the event and their assistance in organising and running the event. The programme was put together by John Aris and his colleague trustees of the LEO Foundation. There was also a display of LEO memorabilia and photos provided by the LEO Computer Society.

The afternoon was introduced and chaired by Peter Hermon of the LEO Foundation (ex LEO, Dunlop and British Airways).

David's long career with Lyons, LEO and English Electric, from the 1930s through to the establishment of LEO and beyond to the formation of ICL, was described by Professor Frank Land (ex LEO and currently LSE).
David joined the newly formed ICL and this part of his career was described by Mike Forrest (ex ICL).

Hilary Caminer gave an eloquent account of David interests outside of his business/computing interests. She said that her father did nothing by halves - a man with strong principles, and a passionate belief in social justice. His life was founded on family, his Jewish heritage of which he was so proud, his life work in the computer industry and a huge range of interests - in sport, in travel, in music, in reading and in writing.
She went on to describe his strong political convictions before and after the war. Losing a leg in the war stopped his active sporting interests but he continued to his interest in Rugby, football and cricket. Despite his disability David continued to be active in walking he was also keen on theatre and classic music.
He gained an OBE for his computer work in Europe and an honorary doctorate from probably the country's largest computing faculty, the University of Middlesex.

His time with Lyons and his involvement in the LEO Project were described by Georgina Ferry, (author , A Computer Called LEO).

Some his work on specific projects were summarised by Ninian Eadie (ex LEO and ICL). This included, one of LEO's biggest customers, The Post Office, and his work in Luxembourg for the European Union. The latter commentary was provided by Gilbert Foix ex ICL France, who was unable to attend in person. Ninian echoed the sentiments of others, in that he expected high standards of himself and those working for him, he had a great attention to detail he could be a hard taskmaster.

This fascinating afternoon was rounded off by a lively debate entitled Systems Design Legacy. Introduced by John Aris (LEO, Imperial Group, NCC)'s distillation of David's systems design principles. He was joined on stage by David Harvey ( until recently the CTO of Sibelius Software) . David Harvey joined John in showing how David's principles were still relevant to the modern world of business applications.

This fascinating afternoon was rounded off by a lively debate entitled Systems Design Legacy. Introduced by John Aris (LEO, Imperial Group, NCC)'s distillation of David's systems design principles. He was joined on stage by David Harvey ( until recently the CTO of Sibelius Software) . David Harvey joined John in showing how David's principles were still relevant to the modern world of business applications.
The rest of the afternoon was a question and answer session about system design principles, some very interesting questions which were only curtailed when time was called.