Tony Carrol, Operator at Wills Tobacco.  

My involvement with LEO started when I was a schoolboy. I had taken my "O" levels and was going into the 6th form but I wanted to mix Classics and Science and was told in no uncertain terms that this was not possible. I could not just do Science as the only chemistry exam I passed was by ignoring the H2O s etc and just concentrated on the maths. I thought this was NOT chemistry. So I ended up doing Classics which did not suit me. Through a friend of my mother's I went for a job as a statistician but did not get it (thank goodness) and then I heard that there were vacancies for trainee computer operators in W. D. & H. O. Wills. This sounded interesting and I was fortunate to be taken on and started in September 1959 ( on £265 per annum ).

I rapidly progressed up to Shift Leader and stayed doing that role until 1969/70 the boss of the department (Bob Brett, with whom I am still in touch today) wanted to move me to Systems and Programming. And so I moved, thoroughly enjoying that time, and stayed in IT until I retired for the second time in 2003(?).