MOD Secrets of Eastcote Government Office Site: The Customs Excise Years.
(In 1947, under the inspiration of TR Thompson, Lyons, the firm of tea-shops, started – with remarkable foresight – to take a serious interest in applying digital computing to their accounting and office work generally. By 1954, LEO (Lyons Electrical Office) computers carried out 3 commercial jobs for Lyons – the bakeries’ payroll, calculation of production and schedule dispatch to 150 tea shops, and the provision of management information.)
The the earlier Elliot 405 was replaced in 1963 by the tenth LEO 3 ever built. It was housed in H Bay (thought by many to have been originally intended as the location for the Operating Theatre had D-Day proved more widely injurious), and, being a very advanced and powerful machine for its time, it aroused so much interest that a glass wall was built around it to allow for a viewing gallery. Data input was via Hollerith punched cards (rectangular holes, and 80 columns), and paper tape. At this stage the purpose of the site’s computing power was purely for Census Office work, but later the Department’s Payroll system was computerised and run on the LEO, a huge undertaking. The LEO worked until 1971
