David Tresman Caminer, OBE, D.Univ (Middlesex)

David Tresman Caminer who has died aged 92 was one of the leaders of what is often called the computer revolution. When the modern electronic computer was invented in the last years of the second world war it was seen as a technology designed to help in scientific and technical computations. The first American electronic computer ENIAC was designed specifically to help the military with the calculation of the trajectories of shells.

At that time David was a soldier in the British army – the Green Howards - serving in North Africa. He was wounded at Mareth in Tunisia in 1943, losing a leg. He returned to civilian life going back to his pre-war job with J. Lyons & Company of Teashop and Swiss Roll fame. He had joined Lyons in 1936 as a management trainee and when he returned from army service was appointed manager of the influential Systems Analysis Office under the direction of John Simmons.

In 1947 Simmons sent two colleagues, T.R. Thompson and Oliver Standingford to study interesting ‘office’ innovations in the USA. They found little to interest Lyons, but came across the new electronic computers. They realised that these machines could be used to solve the problems of keeping track and accounting for Lyons’ multiple activities in the catering and food processing world. Astonishingly the idea was accepted by Simmons and the Lyons Board.

A new venture, the LEO (Lyons Electronic Office), was started under the direction of T.R. Thompson to build and bring into use in the offices of Lyons the world’s first business computer, based on the Cambridge University EDSAC. David Caminer joined this band of pioneers in charge of all the activities necessary to convert business processes into a form which the computer could use. He saw immediately that the computer could do more than copy what was being done in the offices by clerks aided by conventional business machines. With proper design the computer could be used to support management activities and improve the way the company was run. As a result many of the systems designed by David and his team even back in the 1950s were as advanced in concept as any of today’s systems. Indeed, for a brief period the work at Lyons led the world in the application of computers to business problems.

As one of his team, John Aris, later suggested, David Caminer invented what we now call systems engineering. By 1953 the team under the detailed and imaginative guidance of David was turning out a succession of business application for Lyons and for many other companies. David combined an inventive mind with an attention to detail which delivered successful systems. Foremost were the lessons learned in the Systems Analysis Office that successful systems depend on a complete understanding of the business processes being examined and the need to work with the people who operate them.

For those of us who worked for him there was constant excitement as new ground was being broken. At the same time David’s fierce and rigorous enforcement of meticulous standards, to himself as to others, right as they were, could become a source of misery. With his enthusiasm and passion he frequently drove his team to make the unachievable. By the time a piece of documentation had been returned to its author half a dozen times to correct the content, language and style a certain amount of frustration might have set in. But the lessons were learned. Working with David proved to be the most important period in our lives.

Later with the merger of the various branches of the UK computer industry into ICL David was entrusted with the management of one of the largest computer projects attempted at that time for the European Community. For completing that project on time and budget, David received his OBE (for services to British commercial interests overseas) in 1980 and in 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from Middlesex University for his ground breaking contribution to computer sciences. In his later years he could not understand the prevalence of failed computer projects. Would the methods he devised in the early years combined with his vision have saved many of the failed or failing projects?

David retired in 1980 but never lost his interest in LEO and its people. He set up the LEO Foundation and spearheaded the 2001 Conference at London’s Guildhall to celebrate the running of the world’s first business application on a computer 50 years earlier at the Cadby Hall headquarters of Lyons. He was the prime mover and principal author of the book describing the LEO adventure.

In his earlier years David had been a keen rugby playing sportsman and he never lost his love for cricket – he was a member of the MCC – football (Chelsea) and Rugby Union. He loved music and in particular opera. He with his wife Jackie, who survives him, were still going to concerts, plays and sporting events until his final illness. Though not a man of strong religious beliefs, he had a high regard for the traditions of the Jewish community to which he was highly committed. He took an active part in the battles with Mosley in the 30s and 40s culminating with his appearance as a platform speaker in the Trafalgar Square rally of 1943. He continued to have a lively and trenchant view of politics. In later years he took an active role in his local Labour Party and spearheaded the anti-apartheid movement, personally welcoming Archbishop Desmond Tutu to his local Borough in support of the campaign. His erudition and memory were immense which enabled him to engage in always interesting discussion and debate on a very wide range of topics.

He is survived by members of his close-knit family, his wife, two daughters a son and 5 grandchildren.

David Tresman Caminer, OBE, born 26 June 1915 in South Hackney, died 19 June 2008.

Frank Land