Royal visits
Princess Elizabeth’s secret LEO visit in 1951
The staff at J. Lyons & Co.’s Cadby Hall headquarters in west London were ready when Princess Elizabeth’s green Rolls-Royce swept up to the office block on February 15, 1951 – but a secret lurked inside which was not recorded by the press, or even in the diaries of the computer experts present.
This was an official visit: a celebration of the relationship between Buckingham Palace and Lyons, the Royal caterer since 1919. There had been Royal visits before but this was special: the first by Elizabeth and her husband, Prince Philip. She became Queen Elizabeth II on February 6, 1952.
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(Read Rose of St. George)
Inside Cadby Hall, Lyons was keeping a secret…
Inside Cadby Hall, Lyons was keeping a secret. The tour was shepherding Princess Elizabeth towards LEO – the world’s first business computer in conditions of utmost secrecy.
Lyons feared any publicity over LEO (Lyons Electronic Office) could give American and British rivals the chance to catch up, so the development was kept very quiet. As the Royal party approached LEO’s construction room the photographer and correspondent discreetly dropped back.
David Caminer’s diary accounts and Ernest Leanarts notebooks from 1951 never mentioned the Royal visit.
David Caminer, responsible for LEO’s design and programming, and his team had worked long hours to make the unfinished machine perform for Princess Elizabeth.
She was introduced to John Simmons, who’d conceived LEO, Raymond Thompson, an early LEO advocate, and chief engineer John Pinkerton, who conducted the demonstration.
Obediently the machine stepped through its paces and produced an answer – but there was a mistake – something Princess Elizabeth pointed out. Polite laughter followed and the demonstration continued, ending with a typed message: “You see, I can do it.”
Princess Elizabeth was fascinated by the machine’s construction. “How many machines like this are in existence?,” she asked. “Only one other in working condition – EDSAC (Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator) – and no others working on commercial clerical problems,” came the reply.
Prince Phillip’s second LEO encounter, 1960
By the time of Prince Philip’s second visit on March 22, 1960, LEO was becoming an established feature of the British workplace.
Nine years after his first encounter with LEO at Cadby Hall, the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Philip) is back but Lyons’ world-first machine is no longer a secret. LEO has become a business, an industry – and a machine fit for a Royal tour.
Prince Philip visits two facilities: Minerva Road in west London, where LEO IIs are being built and LEO III is taking shape, and Hartree House, the division’s new office and service bureau above Whiteley’s department store amid the busy shoppers in Queensway, London. The images below show cranes lifting LEO computers into Hartreee House in 1962, before the days of heath and safety…
At Minerva Road, Lyons chairman Isidore Gluckstein and LEO Computers’ managing director Anthony Salmon greet Prince Philip against a backdrop of smartly turned-out staff at the former Lyons warehouse. The visit had been meticulously rehearsed.
22 March 1960
22 March 1960
22 March 1960
Prince Philip signs the visitor’s book standing next to David Caminer, one of LEO’s key architects, before touring the operation from drawing board to finished machine. Tony Barnes, LEO Computers’ production director, conducting key moments next to Phillip.
22 March 1960
22 March 1960
22 March 1960
The Duke meets designers drawing circuit diagrams by hand and engineers testing completed computers, including Tony Morgan, evaluating a LEO II for car manufacturer Standard Triumph.
22 March 1960
Then comes LEO III. Philip meets the suited engineers working on its intricate wiring under the gaze of John Pinkerton, chief engineer of LEO and now a director of LEO Computers.
22 March 1960
Queen Elizabeth II remembers LEO seven decades on
It’s 2021 and the princess who stepped into a secret computer room at Lyons’ Cadby Hall headquarters is now the Queen – a working monarch and a matriarch. One of the children Lyons presented with a gift on that first visit in February 15, 1951 has become Prince of Wales and he’s aged 73.
On November 20, 2020, the Society – dedicated to preserving the memory of LEO Computers – wrote to Queen Elizabeth II to mark the anniversary of her visit.
Madam”, the letter opened politely. “You visited Cadby Hall, the Hammersmith headquarters of the giant catering firm, J. Lyons & Co.”
It recalled the Swiss roll production line and ice cream factory and the short stop at the Lyons Electronic Office that, later in 1951, became the world’s first business computer and led the world in revolutionising the way business is transacted.
Enclosed with the letter were photographs of the 1951 visit and a cutting from the Lyons Office Journal. The letter was signed by Hilary Caminer, eldest daughter of David Caminer responsible for programming that first LEO.
Then came the answer. On February 11, 2021, a letter bearing the Royal crest arrived…
The Queen fondly remembers her tour of Cadby Hall and viewing the Lyons Electronic Office.
Caminer was thanked for the photographs and cutting.
“In return,” the letter finishes, “Her Majesty sends her best wishes to the Members of the Society and to all those associated with the world’s first business computer.”
