LEO Computers Society with The Centre for Computing History secured a total of £468,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund for its partnership project Swiss Rolls, Tea & the Electronic Office: A History of LEO, the First Business Computer.

This comprised an initial £101,300 development grant awarded in 2018, followed by a £366,700 delivery grant, enabling the conservation, cataloguing and digitisation of the LEO archive and the creation of major public outputs including educational resources, a documentary film, Virtual LEO and enhanced access to the collection.

In 2018, The Centre for Computing History, led by Lisa-Jane McGerty, and the LEO Computers Society partnered to preserve, research and share the story of LEO (Lyons Electronic Office), recognised by the Guinness World Records as the world’s first business computer. The project sought to safeguard a nationally significant collection of documents, artefacts, personal papers and oral histories relating to LEO and its pioneers, while making this heritage accessible to researchers, educators and the public. 

Through digitisation and cataloguing work, the project brought together material that had previously been dispersed across private collections and family archives, ensuring that internationally significant records of the early business computing era were preserved for future generations. The resulting archive, digital resources, film and virtual experiences significantly increased public awareness of LEO’s importance in both computing and business history. 

Following the project’s completion in 2023, further investment was secured from the AIT Trust to establish the Land LEO Archivist post at the Centre for Computing History. Named in honour of LEO pioneers Frank Land and Ralph Land, the role continues the cataloguing, digitisation and stewardship of the growing LEO archive, ensuring that the legacy of the National Lottery Heritage Fund investment is sustained and that this unique collection remains accessible for research, learning and public engagement.

The Centre for Computing History and the LEO Computers Society received Highly Commended in the Charity (Third Sector) Project of the Year category at the UK IT Industry Awards 2023 for their LEO heritage work.

The documentary “LEO: The Story of the World’s First Business Computer”, commissioned as part of the National Lottery Heritage Fund project, won the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW) Video of the Year Award 2022.

LEO Computers Society is preserving Britain’s place in computing history with J. Lyons & Co.’s pioneering LEO computers which processed its first bakery inventory on 30 November 1951 at 14:35. LEO subsequently went on to dominate internationally with its business computing calculations, including payroll.