LEO editor

Interviewer: Google
Date of Interview: 21.11.2 011
Role in LEO: Bureau Manager, Export Manager Joined LEO: 1954

DOB:24.10.1928

Abstract: Google interviewed and filmed a number of old LEO employees including Ralph Land as part of the celebration at the Science Museum of the 60th anniversary of the roll out of the first business application on the LEO I computer. Narrated by Georgina Ferry/

Repository: Interview Text: to be completed

Type of recorder:
Film: YouTube Copyright: Google Free to view.

Interviewer: Google
Date of Interview: 21.11.2011
Role in LEO: Design Engineer, head of engineering procurement Joined LEO: 1949

Abstract: Google interviewed and filmed a number of old LEO employees including Ernest Kaye as part of the celebration at the Science Museum of the 60th anniversary of the roll out of the first business application on the LEO I computer. Narrated by Georgina Ferry.

Repository: Interview Text:

Type of recorder:
Film: YouTube Copyright: Google Free to view.

DOB: 1930 Died: Aug 2019

Interviewer: Janet Abbate
Date of Interview: September 2001
Role in LEO: Programmer on LEO I and LEO II/I Joined LEO: 1953

Abstract: Betty joined Lyons as a labour cost clerk in the Statistical Office in September 1949. In 1953 she was selected for a LEO appreciation course, and as a result was offered a job as a programmer on LEO I. Despite scepticism about what LEO would be able to do she accepted the offer. She worked on a number of applications – payroll under Mary Blood (Coombs) and Tea Blending under Frank Land. She gained a reputation as a sound and reliable programmer. She left LEO to work as a programmer with EverReady before leaving to start a family.

Reference: Oral-History:Betty_Cooper and CCH

Interviewee: John M.M. Pinkerton Interviewer: Chris Evans
Date of Interview: 1975
Role in LEO: Chief Engineer Joined LEO: 1948

1919-1997

Abstract: John Pinkerton joined Lyons as chief engineer at the very beginning of the LEO initiatve and led the engineering side until the merger with English Electric. He held senior engineering appointments within the merged companies until his retirement. Much of the success of the LEO enterprise lay in his genius for bringing innovative ideas to practical fruition – one of the true heroes of the information age.

Repository: London Science Museum
Audio Recording: Tape 6 in Christopher Evans’s ‘Pioneers of Computing’

Interviewee: John M.M. Pinkerton 

Interviewer: John Pinkerton, self interview 

Date of Interview: 23.08.1988
Role in LEO: Chief Engineer
Joined LEO: 1948

Abstract: Pinkerton begins by discussing his education and wartime work in radar technology in England. He then describes his movement into the computer industry after World War II and his work on the LEO I and LEO II computers. In this context he discusses the British computer firms J. Lyons and Company, Leo Computers, English Electric Co., and International Computers Ltd.

Repository: Charles Babbage Institute, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis Transcript: 54 pages
Copyright: Charles Babbage Institute
Download: Document

Interviewer: Chris Evans
Date of Interview: !970s
Edited Transcript: Science Museum Copyright: Science Museum

Reprinted as Interview between J.R.M. Simmons, Director and Chief Comptroller of J. Lyons & Co., and the Science Museum, London. Appendix B, in Caminer, D.T., Aris, J.B., Hermon, P.M., Lanf, F.F. (editors and contributors) LEO The Incredible Story of the Wold’s first Business Computer, McGraw Hill, New York, pages 360-374