LEO editor

• Wendy Forward Memoir by her daughter Anna C Page

My mother, Wendy Elizabeth Forward, was a computer programmer during the early 1960s in London before embarking upon overseas travel She read mathematics at Reading University, and graduated from there in July 1963 (her degree certificate says ‘Pure Mathematics, Applied Mathematics and Geography, resulting in a BSc Honours 3^rd class). She was a programmer on the Leo III business computer from approximately September 1963 until about August 1966. The Leo was the first business computer in the world, invented during the early 1950s for the Lyons Teahouses (Leo stood for Lyons Electronic Office). See: http://www.leo-computers.org.uk/newphotos.htm for photos of Leo I, Leo II and Leo III. My mother worked in the Lyons main bureau computer at Hartree House, Queensway, London http://www.leo-computers.org.uk and there are some wonderful photos of the installation of this machine – by crane through the window! This machine was in use from 1962 – 1972.

My mother lived near to the computer, in Leinster Square, and then later she moved to Fitzjohn’s Avenue in Hampstead. I succeeded, via the Leo Computers Society, to get in touch with one of her former colleagues who confirmed that she had been a Leo programmer. Her colleague, Peter Byford, told me “We all had a great time at Leo although we worked long hours. We all got on well, your Mum was a nice lady, good programmer, sometimes worried more than most when things went wrong but an important part of our programming team. She would have worked on CLEO and intercede” (programming languages).

My mother’s first dog in Cape Town was called Cleopatra was a Great Dane, the runt of the litter (Cleo for short). We had always thought that Mum had named her for the Egyptian Queen (though we didn’t know why), however CLEO stands for ‘Clear Language for Expressing Orders’ and was the plain English programming language developed for Leo computers (but which ultimately lost out to other programming languages – see pages 164-165 ‘A Computer called Leo’, by Georgina Ferry). To me this just shows Mum’s quiet and ironical sense of humour that she named her dog after the programming language she used, especially as dogs are (hopefully) controlled by commands.

Leo Computers merged with English Electric in February 1963, in October 1964 EE bought out Lyon’s holdings and the computer company was renamed English Electric LEO Marconi, in 1967 it merged with ICT to form International Computing Limited (ICL). These first two events would have taken place while my mother worked for the company. ICL later lost out to IBM and the USA market and then the Japanese has predominated the computing world ever since.

I remember my mother’s reaction to the first Apple home computer that friends of ours acquired in the early 1980s. She so wanted a reason to justify the expense of acquiring one, but despite the fact that it could have helped with the household accounts, the accounts for her mathematics coaching and the weekly letters to her parents and sister, she resisted the urge to buy one as she saw it as a luxury and was very careful about saving money. I so wish that she had bought one, though she would not have had long to enjoy getting to grips with programming again because of her early death.

My mother was an inspiration to me in so many ways, although I only had her for 13 3/4 years. She would have been pleased with my achievements at the Open University (both as a student and member of staff), as I am proud of hers at Leo: what a great technology role model to have in my family.

Wendy and Cleo, 1968.  See also  https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/md6e105079om96rvzjaw7/Wendy-Forward-by-Anna-Page.docx?dl=0&rlkey=ykq9u1x4qen2f36p2l9st9ydz

Nigel Furness, I was involved in 1981 in decommissioning the Bristol machine, LEO III-70 which was a 326 model (editor: the last LEO).  Prior to decommissioning I had been employed as a systems engineer to provide engineering support for this machine.  I had been trained at Charles House which was a BT (formerly GPO) installation, as was Bristol and Cardiff.  I was unaware that the guys who were training me had been at the forefront of computer science in the 1950s.  Many of the concepts embodied in LEO are to be found in today’s PCs – multi-channel DMA for example, though LEO’s version of a DMA controller was called an “assembler” – a term guaranteed to cause confusion in conversation with programmers.  LEO III had the world’s first multitasking operating system, called rather quaintly “the master routine”.  It also had a microprogrammed CPU – a very advanced idea at the time.   LEO was beautifully made and all those engineers who worked on LEO were very proud to have been connected with the machine and we were very sad when we switched it off for the last time.  I and (I think) six other colleagues were the last generation of engineers recruited by ICL to work on LEO and I joined the company last of all, several weeks after the others in January 1980.  I have to say that much of what I learned during this period has underpinned my entire understanding of computers and it was a marvelous opportunity for a young engineer to have experienced what some have called “the golden age of computing”

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John Godwin : LEO Programmer Johannesburg:

Worked in the Johannesburg Bureau from 1964 until 1986 when I moved to the then holding company.  Originally we were part of the Rand Mines Group of companies. The mining  houses were our main customers for whom we ran payrolls, stores and share  transfers. For full reminiscences see Center for Computer History

Jeff Goodenough, LEO engineer. One of my main programming achievements in between mending LE-1 units, was to add the “om tiddly om pom – pom pom” tune to the end of a little program which verified (I think) magnetic tapes! (Much to the amusement of the operators.) 

John Goodwin I worked on LEO II/4 for the Ford Motor company, & I’m the sole entry in your list of addressees that did genuinely work on that machine; one of the two others worked on II/11, & the other worked for LEO on II/8?, & joined Ford after II/4 had been scrapped.
I notice that you have an error regarding the attribution of II/6.  The Government Pensions activity never had their own machine, having used one of other of the LEO-owned machines that operated as a service bureau. (Editors note: Goodwin’s assertion cannot be sustained as a number of LEO Computers Society members including commissioning engineers tell of visiting the LEO II/6 at the Ministry of Pensions offices in Newcastle. Geoff Pye  – see Oral History gives an account of working on MPNI LEO II/6 in Newcastle) 
When I went on my programming course at Whiteley’s , we were presented with a list that detailed the owners & locations of the LEO computers; that list omitted II/6, & in response to our enquiries about that, an evasive reply advised us that the presenter was not able to disclose that (so of course we all knew where the machine had been deployed). That machine was actually purchased by another Government activity – the Foreign Office, for one of their activities whose existence was never disclosed; that machine was actually located at Cheltenham, & certain of our engineers were required to work on that machine as required.  I never heard of the fate of that machine, but I expect that it was simply scrapped – like all the others & no mention if it is included in any information published by Bletchley Park (it took over the work of the 11 Colossus machines). (Perhaps it’s still there?)
It was quite amazing just how much work those machines could achieve, even using punched-card for input & output of master files (some using pure binary), supported by a room full of ancillary punched-card appliances (sorters, collators, punches & interpreters + an IBM 407 tabulating machine – that I programmed using huge re-wirable plug-boards!  Modern machines seem to be no more efficient, due to the increased bit usage plus masses of bloatware, & general incompetence of system designers & programmers.  Our programmes were coded to run using pure-binary code, but the compiler would accept decimal input & convert to binary for execution, but I had to decode the binary & perform modifications by ‘patching’ in binary.
I worked on our LEO until it was replaced by an IBM 1410 in November 1963, & I supported & worked on a series of other machines until 2000 C.E. when I accepted early retirement, but continued working as a consultant – even to the present day.  Our replacement machine was eventually replaced by a Honeywell 2200 + a 120, in a dishonest attempt to gain the company’s business by a bunch of fraudsters, since the machines were rip-off’s of the IBM 1410/7010 &c., & the software merely stolen directly; compiling a programme in Cobol, resulted in a fatal error unless the computer used was declared to be an IBM 1410 or 7010; that machine got thrown-out prior to launch, when it was found that it was not up to the claimed performance, & would take 28 hours per day to run the existing workload then currently performed on the IBM 1410; we replaced the IBM 1410 with an IBM 360-50, running in IBM 7010 emulation mode; I wrote the Post Mortem programme for it!, & spent many week-ends running both new & old machines concurrently 24 hours per day, unassisted & unaccompanied, to develop new programmes for our entire Accounting systems; people would have a fit nowadays, if anyone attempted that! The above account is archived in Dropbox at https://www.dropbox.com/preview/LEO%20Oral%20History%20project/LEO%20Memoirs%2C%20Reminiscences%20and%20Anecdotes/John%20Goodwin%20reminiscences.docx?role=personal

Broken Link

 Emil Gottwald: I joined LEO Computers in 1964 after graduating from Queen Mary College in London with a degree in physics.  It was right in the middle of the boom in semiconductors, and even though I had specialised in solid state physics the prospect of working with semiconductors did not appeal to me, so I interviewed with LEO Computers and accepted their job offer.
      I was part of a small group [I think there were 6 or 7 of us**] working on “special projects” for JW [whose nickname BTW was ‘Fred’]. We had a small lab which housed a “research” computer consisting of components mounted on pegboard hung on the wall, and fed by paper tape. We worked on a variety of projects ranging from voice recognition [prompted by IBM’s ‘Shoebox’ voice recognition device], to thermal printing and performance analysis. This was during the time of the LEO III/F, and we built a prototype performance analyzer for it consisting of a bunch of photocells mounted on the control panel, driving a paper tape punch to record which cells had detected a control panel light. It was a Rube Goldberg affair using rubber doorstops for the photocell mounts [the screw holes were used to fit over the console display lights at one end, and to house the photocells at the other – cheap and effective]. Don’t know how that turned out as I left for the States around then. I remember JW blowing his top when he found out I was leaving, calling me into his office and reaming me out for not giving more notice. A more pleasant memory of JW has to do with his mantra to keep things simple. He once asked me to name a simple, reliable mechanism and I said “A car engine’. His reply was “How about a matchbox?
      My time at Minerva Road is one of my fondest memories – I still have my CLEO and KDF9 Algol User Manuals and I seem to remember an AutoCoder manual lying around somewhere though I don’t remember if that was from my LEO days or from college.

Valerie Grose I had the somewhat dubious distinction of being the first girl in London
to complete the Gold level of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Scheme (only because I was in the
first intake of girls to start when it was introduced). On the photograph I am showing Mr
& Mrs Simmons the work two younger girls are engrossed in leading to the Bronze
stage. It was divided into four sections: Service to the community, Adventure, Hobbies
and practical skills. Under hobbies I spotted driving a car and asked my manager what
that entailed as few had a car at the time. Please laugh (or not) but a man was paid to
take me out on Saturday mornings, in a company car, to teach me. No matter how long it
took: the objective being for me to pass the test. I made my way to Cadby Hall to meet
George, plus car, and then I drove to my home in Ealing where my mother had coffee
and buns ready for us. George had a cigarette and after chatter together I drove back to
CH. We spun it out for about six months and I then passed. Although I went to work
everyday with only two weeks holiday, that company was pretty good to me. What a
privilege to have had my office (when eventually promoted to senior secretary) opposite
that of Mr Simmons with TRT’s alongside. Mr Pinkerton and Mr Caminer had offices
elsewhere but were frequently seen heading to Mr Simmons’ office. One day Diane (a
colleague) and I were called upon to serve tea in his oak panelled office to a group of a
dozen or so gentlemen. I was going on holiday next day (he must have been told that by
someone). He stopped the meeting, excuse me gentlemen, Valerie I understand you are
going on holiday tomorrow. May I ask where to if you are going away. The Isle of Wight
with my parents. He then wished me a pleasant time. My completion of the Award took
me to the office of Sir Samuel Salmon who presented me with “The Ascent of Everest”. I
still have it on my bookshelf. I met Sir John Hunt and when four more girls completed
the Gold level we were invited for lunch at the House of Commons with the MP for
Hammersmith, Mr Compton Carr. So….I never was a “LEO” but had that close
association with the key players. I have spoken to one or two people at the reunions who
were LEOs but who never met the “gentlemen”. I feel very fortunate. KR Valerie I
know so many widows, I feel I am now a member of “that” Society. Had Tony have
lived, his onward journey would not have been pleasant (wheelchair and incontinent) so I
have to come to terms with the outcome being, for him, the kindest thing.
My file was on the table with lots of other items/memorabilia. I removed a couple
items that I can always return. I must say, in all honesty, at the time I had no idea of the
role of Mr Simmons. Like several other “pinstripe-suited” gentleman he was just a very
senior manager to whom we younger employees showed great respect. He was the
Comptroller but what exactly that was we knew not: just the head of the clerical
workings of J Lyons, in the same way that schools have a headmaster (or mistress). I’m
not entirely sure I had awareness of his LEO importance/connection. When Messrs
Caminer, Pinkerton and Thompson dashed along the corridor heading to room 23 (Mr
Simmons office) I suppose we thought it was the weekly audience, such as the Prime
Minister has with Her Majesty the Queen. I was once, with another staff member, called
upon to serve tea to various managers in his office. Whilst we poured then delivered to
each person, they carried on talking but Mr Simmons said, “excuse me a moment,
gentlemen”: Valerie I believe you are going on holiday tomorrow, are you going
away? With my parents we were heading to the Isle of Wight. He wished me a very
nice time. His secretary, Miss Margery Slack went to Tangier. We lesser mortals
thought she was on some other planet: way out of our reach. Tony was with British
Airways and we returned from Washington on Concorde. Never as a young girl could I
have imagined such arrangements. Neither could I have imagined being part of these
LEO gatherings in such a grandiose building as Middle Temple Hall. I don’t have photos
that Mr Simmons took: just one with me explaining the Duke of Edinburgh’s award to he
and Mrs Simmons. Another manager, Mavis Leopold was the wife of Michael, nephew
of Reginald Leopold who conducted the Sunday evening Palm Court orchestra
programme. A Mrs Greenall, personnel manager and Miss Buzzey, secretary to the
Chief Accountant, together with Mrs Simmons all had manicures, regular hair
appointments, bags and shoes like Footballers’ wives have nowadays (Several thousand
per item: equivalent in those days). Something we younger ones could only admire and
dream of. It all seems like another world but of course is the memory of the early days
of my life. The Lyons whole operation was very labour-extensive. Would Mr Simmons
nowadays have no need of his secretary and just communicate on his mobile and
iPad? Maybe the wages and salaries to so many thousands of staff (9000 at Cadby Hall,
I recall) perhaps be part of the downfall of the company? Thankfully the organisation of
the time enabled me to have an interesting and fulfilling career. I feel very fortunate

Valerie Grose Reminiscences
I have read the fascinating article (that mentions Nigella). Actually her grandfather Mr
Felix Salmon was our “in-line direct director” with secretary, Miss Patterson. One of
my colleague’s father was Mr Felix’s chauffeur and when a child she played with
Vanessa, Nigella’s mother. As previously stated, other than Mr Frank Land I knew
most of the other ‘names’ (Messrs Simmons, Pinkerton, Thompson, Caminer). I
believe Mr Oliver Standingford had just left the company prior to my joining but I
knew Mr Geoffrey Mills with whom he co-wrote “Office Practice” I certainly cannot
claim to have known them well (being considerably younger) but my office was in the
same corridor so saw them all frequently. To measure their success is
difficult: obviously, as things eventually panned out I suppose wrong decisions were
made but they were surely the “brains” of the time. By way of comparison, “medical”
knowledge extended to patients having leeches set upon them to draw out blood but as
time passed with newer developments this soon become consigned to history. Mobile
phones were the size of bricks, became very small but curiously are now larger (albeit
slim and lightweight) but have the capacity to offer many more functions. Life has
changed beyond all recognition over the past half century with so many new
inventions, and all new technology in the future will surely pale into insignificance
with yet more inventions. Fax machines and music cassettes for instance, (good
inventions that were relatively short-lived). LEO though was of great significance
and I feel very privileged to have been an employee at J Lyons during those early
years. Even the style of dress of those gentlemen would not suit modern times: grey
suits, short back and sides hair, most smoked. Most certainly Miss Margery Slack,
secretary to Mr Simmons did, and Mrs Maureen Henley, secretary to TRT. When
entering their offices you could barely see them through the smoke! I recall walking
through the bakery department once with trolleys of bread rolls open to the elements;
people walking past coughing. Swiss rolls, as I recall were all rolled by hand as no
machine had been put together that could roll them without cracking. Imagine what
Health and Safety would say about that nowadays. The internal telephone exchange
was fascinating, headed by Mr Calder. Each call had to be individually
connected. The two dozen or so telephonists sat at terminals with thick flex to insert
into the connecting plug. When lifting the receiver to make a call, the telephonists
were trained to ask by name “Which number, Mr Simmons” but ‘ordinary staff’ were
greeted with ‘number please’ to which you replied ‘extension 645’. Daily office life
was very labour intensive with reports and minutes of meetings having to be typed
using carbon paper to produce extra copies. I was a very light typist, only being able
to produce about four readable reports so, if ten were required I would have to type
each set three times which was very time-consuming. How different my life would
have been with a modern computer/keyboard, email facility and the holiday
entitlement of today. Ten days only, plus Bank Holidays and New Year’s Day was a
working one at the time. Mr Samuel Salmon gave a New Year address over the
tannoy, “Hello and good morning, Cadby” and thanking all for their contribution to
this great company. It was just that at the time and I am pleased that aspects will have
historical significance. I rather suspect those in LEO had their heads down busily
engaged in developing the new machinery and knew rather less of what happened on a
day to day basis, as described above. Mr John Andrews has a file of LEO memorabilia
that, being somewhat of a hoarder, I have kept from my early days at
JL. Unfortunately I could not download this
(http://leo.settle.dtdns.net/LeoCode/LeoIIIdemo2.zip) Please forward this on and feel
free to ask any further questions you feel I may be able to assist with. Best rgds
Valerie
Dear Frank,
Having heard your name for several years (I have attended quite a few reunions (sadly
seeing Mr Caminer in a wheelchair at one) it surprises me that our paths never seem to
have crossed. Mr Simmons, to me, was the epitome of the perfect gentleman and
always addressed me as Valerie (no others did so)*. Geoffrey Mills smoked a pipe, as
you may recall, and somewhat amazingly lived less than five minutes from where my
son and daughter in law now reside. His address sounded so romantic (Beechcroft was
the name of his house) and to me it sounded so far away (Claygate, Surrey). * my own
boss of course used my Christian name and, to my total amazement, announced one
day that as he used mine, then I should use his. I found that extremely difficult. It just
was “not done”. Mr Simmons’ address. Hyde Park Gate. A quick Google now shows
today’s asking price, £13,000,000 but perhaps modest against the £40m of the
Beckhams! Holidays: one year my boss went to a Butlins Holiday camp (!) as felt
suitable for his two young children. Upon return he reported the children had loved it
whilst he and his wife grinned and bore it. My colleagues and I – Torquay, Isle of
Wight, Camber Sands. Miss Slack, secretary to Mr Simmons went to Tangier. We
considered either she, or the rest of us, were on another planet. I have no recollection
of the destinations of the LEO gentlemen. Not LEO but might amuse. Mr Mark
Bogod (non-family director?) due a new company car, invited his chauffeur, Geoffrey
to choose. “How about a Rover 90, sir?, and he chose the colour:grey. Very
insightful psychology. Clearly, Mr Bogod was not overly-bothered and presumably
felt if Geoffrey was happy he’ed give good service, often being required to work antisocial hours driving to functions and returning at midnight. Looking back over the
years, at the time everything, everyday was so normal but now seems…..yes, like life
on some other planet. Oh yes, just thought of this. We girls wore gloves to work,
even in summer! In winter, obviously for warmth but in summer, lacy decorative
items and as for being bare-legged: never. Nylon stockings with nice straight seams
and I never saw the gentlemen wearing casual clothes as on “dress down Fridays” in
offices nowadays. Grey suits, black shoes, shirt and tie was their ‘uniform’. I can
clearly picture the vast LEO and wish I had paid rather more attention. Opening my
Daily Telegraph one day, on the Obituaries page sadly was Mr Pinkerton. I recognised
him straightaway before even seeing his name. Then Mr Caminer. May they all rest
in peace after giving valuable service to that once great company but more
particularly that wonderful invention, the Lyons Electronic Office.

Peter Guest b.1934, died 1995 aged 61, LEO Maintenance Engineer
Margaret Guest, his widow writes: Peter’s education badly disrupted during Wartime,
leaving Wm. Penn School, Peckham, London aged 16 in 1951. Attended Woolwich
Polytechnic 1951-55 for part time day release, obtained ONC in civil engineering while
working for Sir Murdock MacDonald & Partners as a trainee draughtsman. Further HND
studies but National Service in RAF intervened including training in communication
hardware preparing to be a wireless operator and then posted to Aden where he worked for
the Commonwealth Air Forces Communications Network with the rank of Corporal.
Came back and worked for Vickers Armstrong at a factory in Crayford, Kent. At the time
he joined they were building a valve computer for Powers Samas, the PCC, which had an
immense number of problems and not many people capable of solving them! He left
when the PCC was going to be superseded by a future design done by ICT.
Early 1960 (the year we were planning to marry) Peter was employed by LEO in London
(for a very small wage for the first 6 months) while getting a good grounding in all aspects
of this new invention; engineering, testing, commissioning, etc. He was sent out to
maintain computers at Ford Dagenham (LEOII/4) and Ilford Films (LEO II/9)
while we lived in a caravan on the outskirts of Romford. He was also training on LEO

111. At the time the head office of LEO Computers was in Bayswater.
     Then, about 1964, after LEO amalgamated with English Electric, we moved to the South
     Coast where he was sent to commission a new English Electric computer for Lloyds Bank
     at Durrington, Worthing, while also troubleshooting other installations in London and the
     South Coast.
     After the merger with English Electric he spent a lot of time up in Kidsgrove on the KDF9
     commissioning and troubleshooting.
     Our next move was to Long Ashton, on the outskirts of Bristol where he was Assistan

Gloria Guy, LEO Computer Society Committee member
My very first employment was in 1952 with Jo Lyons at Elms House and have a loose
connection with Coventry Street Corner House. Sadly, I wasn’t a Nippy but once Lyons
had trained me to use a calculator in their own training school, my job consisted of adding
up all the bills from Coventry Street Corner House – all day long! I found it fascinating
and got quite cross with Lyons when they decided to promote me after 16 months to a job
which I didn’t like and with people that I didn’t get on with!
After several moves – Bakery Sales office using comptometers, then LEO doing data
entry in 1954 I had no idea I was working on a piece of history. During this time I was
studying shorthand and typing at night school and eventually worked in their Works &
Engineering department at Spike House before leaving for a secretarial career, which
stood me in very good stead for the rest of my working life.
My mother also worked at Cadby Hall and my grandfather worked at Henry Telfer
(the meat pie company owned by Lyons). See:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8km6dav1cr5wlq9/Gloria%20Guy%20brief%20bio.docx?dl=0