Unveiling Ceremony, on the 29th November 2016 a commemorative plinth was unveiled
in Lyons Walk in the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, a site overlooking the place
once occupied by Cadby Hall the headquarters of J. Lyons & Co and the location of the
world’s first business computer LEO. The unveiling took place exactly 65 years after
LEO carried out on behalf of Lyons the running of the world’s first data processing
application on an electronic computer. The unveiling was carried out jointly by Dame
Stephanie Shirley and Frank Land in the presence of representatives of the Borough of
Hammersmith and Fulham, representatives of the local MP, Andrew Slaughter,
descendants of the families which had built J. Lyons & Co., members of the LEO
Computers Society and friends of LEO including representatives of the Association for
Information Technology. The erection of the plinth was arranged by the Borough of
Hammersmith and Fulham and much of the funding provided by Tony Morgan of the
LEO Computers Society. A film of the ceremony, including speeches by Peter Byford, a
representative of the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, Frank Land, Dame
Stephanie Shirley, and Tony Morgan can be found on https://youtu.be/FmHnKq15SGc
For more information and pictures see Plaque Unveiling
The Sunday Times carried an op-ed article by Dominic Lawson following the ceremony, entitled 65 years ago the age of the computer began ….. to sell better tea cake page 24 4th December 2016. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/comment/65-years-ago-the-age-of-the-computer-began-to-sell-a-better-tea-cake-zzpx63qx6
