File copy letter from John Pinkerton (Development Manager, LEO Computers) to the Earl of Halsbury (Managing Director of National Research Development Corporation) re Lord Halsbury's recent lecture to the British Computer Society attended by Pinkerton and other LEO staff. Pinkerton suggests Lord Halsbury may have under-represented LEO by referring to Lyons as users of machines rather than developers, making the case that Lyons have been at the forefront in developing their own machines and were now putting them into service for third parties, 28th Oct 1958.
File copy of the response from Lord Halsbury, 30th Oct 1958, quoting directly from the text of his lecture and paying tribute to the innovation of the LEO team, showing 'the vision and guts to get something working [...] the LEO team went and did these things while everybody else sat and talked about them.'

Transcript :

Copy: Mr. Anthony Salmon, Mr. Simmons, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Holmyard

JMMP/JG

					28th October, 1958.

The Rt. Hon. The Earl of Halsbury
Managing Director
National Research Development Corporation
1 Tilney Street
London, W.1.

Dear Lord Halsbury,

Your most interesting lecture to the British Computer Society was attended by several colleagues and myself. We were particularly struck by your remarks about users in this country hanging back as compared, for example, with the USA. Undoubtedly, there has been a rush of computers to the head over there, but equally truly there have been many cases of cold feet amongst potential users in Britain. It is also startling to hear how much public money was spent on computer development in the USA.

We were naturally flattered by your remarks about the work we have done in getting computers into use, but speaking for myself I feel we deserve recognition for rather more than merely using computers successfully. I am sure you know that in addition to the long experience with the two machines we built at Cadby Hall (one of them is now completing its fifth year of continuous service), we have this year delivered two complete computers to customers and a third is on trial and due to be delivered next month. Others are under construction at the factory.

Moreover, many features now regarded as standard appeared for first time in LEO machines, e.g. automatic conversion between sterling or decimal and binary vice versa. We were the first to link many items of terminal equipment able to work concurrently by means of individual buffer storage and our machines incorporate many features to make the programmers task easier.

If at any time you consider making a reference to LEO we would naturally be most appreciative if you would have some of the foregoing in mind.

Yours sincerely,
[signature - J.M.M.P.]
J.M.M. Pinkerton

Development Manager
LEO Computers Ltd.

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To: Mr. Anthony Salmon, Mr. Simmons, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Holmyard
Copy/JG/4th November, 1958.

National Research Development Corporation
1 Tilney Street
London, W.1.

30th October, 1958.

Dear Mr. Pinkerton,

Thank you very much for your letter. In lecturing to a learned society I was concerned not to boost the products of any manufacturer but only introduced manufacturer's names where the context forced it on me. I was of course, telling my own story to some extent and this dictated a selective attitude to what I said. My reference to the LEO team taken from the actual manuscript was as follows:

"In an hour's lecture it is not possible to do more than highlight the main event of ten years. For this reason I have omitted everything with which I was not directly concerned, such as the introduction of core storage and the magnificent pioneering of the LEO team."

From this you will see I made no particular distinction between use, on the one hand, and design on the other.

At the same time I must confess that it is always in the field of use that I have paid tribute to the efforts of the LEO team. What characterised them was not this technical device or that, but the vision and guts to get something working. In this respect they seemed to be adults in a world of adolescents, regarding computers as tools to be used, not toys to be played with. The type of features which were incorporated in the LEO machine were not particularly original in conception. Dozens of people were talking around just such points, and one could at that time have listened to dozens of arguments for and against such features as direct binary to sterling orders, equally with the nature of the buffer necessary to couple the computer to the outside world. The point is that the LEO team went and did these things while everybody else sat and talked about them.

For this reason I think it would be most derogatory to their achievements to try and boost them in the field of mere technical devices.

For your information, the details I disclosed on the EMIDEC 2400 will not, as I at present intend it, be a feature of the article in print. I included them for the sake of interest but will leave EMI to do their own sales promotion!

With kind regards,
Yours sincerely,
(Lord Halsbury)

Provenance :
Collected by Peter Bird as part of his research for his book LEO - The First Business Computer (1994).