I had only three slight experiences with LEO.

When I worked at Kodak in the UK LEO did our payroll. That’s the first link with computers that Kodak had long before the parent company, Kodak USA, used any computer. Kodak USA was working with punched cards and plug boards as was Kodak UK.

My uncle Jimmy was chief engineer at Lyons. He worked at Cadby Hall. He was asked to push as much cooling as he could through ’that wall’. I don’t know where the wall was, I assume at Cadby Hall. When he asked for details about what was behind the wall and what was its heat output, he was told that was secret and ‘just do it’. It was only later he found it was LEO. 

When I was BCS advisor to the Science Museum for their first computer gallery we asked BCS members if they had any computer memorabilia. Someone sent us a photo of 3 young men in very wide-legged trousers with meticulous creases down the legs. They were standing proudly beside a computer. There was a ‘Persian’ carpet on the floor under the computer. We were told it was a picture of the LEO programmers. The science museum kept the photo.

I think the main thing about LEO was it was built for a commercial application at a time when we all thought computers were for scientific calculations.