LEO editor

Mary Coombs recalls her work as an early computer programmer on LEO, the first
electronic office system, pioneered by the Lyons catering company.In the early 1950s, the
leading British catering firm, J Lyons & Co, pioneered the world’s first automated office
system. It was baptised LEO – the Lyons Electronic Office – and was used in stock-taking,
food ordering and payrolls for the company. Soon it was being hired out to UK government
ministries and other British businesses. Mary Coombs worked on the first LEO and was the
first woman to become a commercial computer programmer. She tells Mike Lanchin about her memories of those heady days when computers were still in their infancy.
Photo:LEO 2 in operation, 1957 (credit: The LEO Computers Society)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csyx55

BBC TV 2, 5th January 2022 at 9.00 pm and IPlayer. Greg Wallace and presenters visit
factory baking Malt Loaves. Meanwhile, historian Ruth Goodman reveals the
surprising story of a British baking company that cooked up the first
business computer J. Lyons and the LEO Computer. The link is another
factory process – the miles of Swiss Rolls baked by Lyons in its Cadby Hall
factory. The TV show devotes about 5 minutes, about 40 minutes into the
program, to an excellent account of the LEO story. See: Inside the Factory

BBC Witness History
Coombs, M. and Lanchin, M., (2019), From cakes to computers, BBC Witness
History Coombs recalls her work as an early computer programmer on LEO, the first
electronic office system, pioneered by the Lyons catering company. In the early 1950s, the
leading British catering firm, J Lyons & Co, pioneered the world’s first automated office
system. It was baptised LEO – the Lyons Electronic Office – and was used in stock-taking,
food ordering and payrolls for the company. Soon it was being hired out to UK government
ministries and other British businesses. Mary Coombs worked on the first LEO and was the
first woman to become a commercial computer programmer. She tells Mike Lanchin about
her memories of those heady days when computers were still in their infancy
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3csyx55

A podcast designed to explain why the UK’s computer industry failed to emulate the success of IBM despite the impetus of building pioneering systems both technically and in terms of the uses the computers were put to. The explanations are broad-brush, not surprising given the number of years covered and the complexity of the subject. The result is a story narrated with confidence and plausibility pinpointing many relevant decisions over the course of many decades. But equally the approach has a number of important gaps which reduce the value of the broadcast. There is only a single mention of LEO (19 minutes into the broadcast) but without any explanation of the role it played. Nor is the attempt by the European computer companies, including LEO, to provide a united front to combat the advance of IBM and the US computer industry in Europe. The broadcast can be downloaded at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkTHDgYTh64