Explore how Joseph Lyons & Co created LEO I, the world’s first business computer, shaping IT from 1950s to 1970s.
Speaker
Vince Bodsworth
Agenda
6:30PM-7:30PM - Talk by Vince Bodsworth
7:30PM-7:45PM - Q&A
Synopsis
What was the history of Joseph Lyons and Co before 1945 and what were the circumstances and history of how they came to develop the LEO I (Lyons Electronic Office) between 1949 and 1951.
What systems did LEO I support, and what were the techniques and processes the people in Lyons invented that drove the global computer industry in business for the next 50 years also followed the LEO I, (the LEO II and LEO III) and who were the customers and main applications up to the 1970’s and what caused Lyons eventual departure from the market.
About the speaker
Vince Bodsworth was born in 1945 in Sheffield into the very austere post war Britain. He was schooled at Barlborough Hall (prep school ) and Mount St Mary’s School, Jesuit run boarding schools in Derbyshire (both now defunct in 2025 due, at least in part to the application of VAT to private schooling)
He read Theoretical Physics from 1964 to 1967 at Queens’ College Cambridge, and then entered the computer industry where he remained until around 2010 undertaking almost every role it is possible to do and in many countries and companies around the world. He is now a Volunteer Guide at The National Museum of Computing at Bletchley Park and a Trustee and Web Master for the LEO Computers Society
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This event is brought to you by: Cheltenham and Gloucester branch
