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LEO Computers Society Registered Charity 1182253 Annual Report: 2024-25
This report covers the period from May 2024 to April 2025.
Following approval at our last AGM, the Society this year introduced an annual members’ subscription. Many on our lists have become full members with the right to vote at the AGM and other formal meetings, while others remain as associate members. We would like to encourage full membership. We have of course had to report the passing of several members this year. They are sadly missed by the Society and where we have sufficient information, we have listed their names with a short tribute on our website.
We continue to attract new members including some who did not work on LEO machines but are interested in discovering more about the LEO story. To help us with the membership activities we have appointed Mike Storey to fill the newly created membership secretary post.
Land archivist post : As members are probably aware, our major project run jointly with the Centre for Computing History, Cambridge and funded by the National Heritage Lottery finished in 2023. This project included archiving work on the LEO documentation and artefacts, but left many documents and artefacts still to be catalogued and digitised. We were successful in our application for funding from The AIT trust which has allowed us to appoint an archivist for 2 years working three days a week. The post has been called the Land archivist in honour of Frank and Ralph Land, both LEO pioneers, who will be well known to our members. We have appointed Kate Stockwell who started work in April at the CCH and is now very involved in the cataloguing work.
A start has been made on our Museums project aimed at locating LEO holdings and where appropriate helping improve their displays. Vince Bodsworth has been working with staff at TNMoC to enhance their LEO display. Graham Briscoe is contacting museums and repositories to research their LEO material. He first contacted those abroad in countries where LEO machines were sold and will follow this by contacting those in the UK.
An Education project will be starting soon, under John Paschoud’s stewardship. We have identified several academics who are willing to help us. We would like to ensure that the story of LEO is better known both at school level and in higher education.
We have continued zoom forums on roughly two monthly intervals . In October Eric Dickens gave us a presentation on a project he had led working with a group of volunteers. The project demonstrates how CLEO, one of LEO lll’s programming languages, was used by the Post Office to run its Premium Bond operations. We were privileged to have a talk from Ruth Bourne in December. This 99 year old lady spoke about her work during WW2 at Bletchley Park to break the German Enigma code. Most recently, we had an introduction to Archives of IT from their CEO, Tola Sargeant. We are planning to have better links with the AIT.
The Society has this year run two face to face events for members . The first, in October 2024 was held at TNMoC. Around 30 members attended as well as Simon Allen & Anna Ryten who are the Big Yellow Self Storage (BYSS) developer and architect. They showed us the plans for the redevelopment of the site in Hammersmith where Cadby Hall once stood. Vince Bosworth and Sheridan Williams, our members who are TNMoC guides, took the attendees on tours around the museum. TMNoC provided a good buffet. We had the usual raffle with some great prizes. Our second face to face event is to be held on 20[th] May at The Queens Head, Brook Green, Hammersmith. (This report had to be done ahead of the event). This is familiar to us as the Lyons and LEO pub and displays various pictures and artefacts about Lyons and LEO. 40 members and guests are due to attend. This
event coincides with the start of the building development by Big Yellow Self Storage Company on what was the Cadby Hall site. BYSS representatives are to give an update on progress of the development and show photos of the Hoardings surrounding it which are decorated with photos and time lines relating to LEO and Lyons. As well as a buffet lunch there is to be a raffle with some interesting prizes. Vince Bodsworth plans to show a video clip of the Virtual LEO l depicting LEO in its computer room in Cadby Hall.
Publicity for the LEO story is one of the Society’s most important activities. I must again thank our trustee, Neville Lyons, for continuing to publicise the LEO story through his talks to a variety of organisations, including several u3a branches and he also encourages other members to use his “packaged “talks to other audiences. These talks have led to new members joining us. I must thank Dr. Elisabetta Mori for the presentations she is giving all over the world. These lectures are given at various IT themed academic conferences and nearly always include something about LEO. As I have mentioned before, we have also been working with the IEEE to provide a plaque commemorating LEO l . If our ongoing submission is successful, the plaque will be provided by the IEEE in the USA and will be installed in The Queen’s Head, mentioned earlier.
Since the last AGM there have been two editions of LEO Matters our newsletter. We are still collecting reminiscences for inclusion. One item we covered in our October edition was the exciting news that there is a LEO connection in the alphabetical storm names chosen by the Met Office for 2024-2025.The one that interested us was Storm Mavis . This is named after Mavis Hinds who, with a colleague, worked on weather forecasting on LEO I as early as 1951. The latest storm - in January - was called Eowyn so there are 7 more to go before we get to Mavis. If we get there we will publicise Mavis’s work on LEO 1.
After a delay of some months we are also moving ahead with oral histories . We are working to identify those people we still need to interview and to make existing histories easier to access. Another historical initiative is being undertaken by member Simon Lavington who is researching female programmers working in the 1950s. He is trying to identify them all. We believe that LEO had the most at that time. If you know of any please let us know.
I would like to thank all our trustees and other volunteers for their work this year. Sadly Hilary Caminer our Honorary Secretary/newsletter editor/minutes secretary etc. gave the Society a year’s notice of retiring from her secretarial etc. role. Her retirement will take place at this year’s AGM in June. Hilary has done a brilliant job and has expanded the original role of secretary making it difficult to find a replacement. Indeed we have recruited two people to take on the work but still need somebody else. We welcomed Ron Condon into the Society, a retired computer journalist, who worked with the Society briefly in its early days . Ron Condon is taking over the role of newsletter editor. Eric Dickens has taken the Minutes secretary role. We will need somebody to take on the general secretarial duties.
Looking to the future, 2026 will mark the 75[th] anniversary of LEO I and hence of business computing, We were prevented from honouring the 70[th] anniversary in a major way as it fell during the pandemic, but we are now starting to consider how to celebrate this significant occasion which will fall on the 29[th] -30[th] November 2026.
We continue to be a busy Society so we need more help to cover all of our many activities . If you think you might have some time to help please let me know.
- Peter Byford, Chair (peter.byford@leo computers.org.uk)
Charity Registration No. 1182253
LEO COMPUTERS SOCIETY
UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 20 2 4
LEO Computers Society Income and Expenditure For the Year 1st Jan to 31 Dec. 2024
Charity No. 1182253
Jan - Dec 24
| Ordinary Income/Expense Income Bank Interest Received LLoyds Donations & Grants Donations - Easy Fundraising Donations - General Donations - Gift Aid HMRC Donations - Subscription Appeal Grant - AITT Total Donations & Grants Reunion Income Attendance Fee Raffle Total Reunion Income Sales Book Sales & Publishing Book Sales Postage for Members a/c Total Book Sales & Publishing LEO Tote Bag Total Sales Total Income Cost of Goods Sold Cost of Goods Sold Total COGS Expense Bank Charges PayPal Service Charges Zettle/Paypal Charges Gross Income Total Bank Charges Committee Meeting Expenses Travel - Committee Meetings Total Committee Meeting Expenses Computer & Web Expenses Domain Name Renewal Email - additional Web Hosting Total Computer & Web Expenses LEO Plaque Cleaning Plaque Total LEO Plaque Newsletter/LEO Matters Postage Total Newsletter/LEO Matters Office Expense Computer Equipment Postage & Stamps Total Office Expense Oral History & Heritage Project Land Archivist |
265.19 106.98 20.00 123.75 625.00 42,936.00 43,811.73 1,520.00 175.00 1,695.00 36.00 14.95 50.95 18.00 68.95 |
|---|---|
| 45,840.87 12.39 |
|
| 12.39 | |
| 45,828.48 0.68 0.71 1.39 0.00 0.00 0.00 48.52 259.06 307.58 16.00 16.00 5.49 5.49 104.99 18.14 123.13 42,936.00 |
Page 1
Charity No. 1182253
For the Year 1st Jan to 31 Dec. 2024
LEO Computers Society Income and Expenditure
| Oral History OH Travel-Meetings/Sustinence Total Oral History Total Oral History & Heritage Project Publishing Postage & Carriage Postage Total Postage & Carriage Total Publishing Reunion Expenses Reunion Expenses Total Reunion Expenses Uncategorized Expenses Postage & Stamps - Merchandise Travel - General Total Uncategorized Expenses Total Expense Net Ordinary Income Income for the Year |
Jan - Dec 24 |
|---|---|
| 163.44 163.44 43,099.44 5.85 5.85 5.85 1,920.00 1,920.00 1.90 88.80 90.70 |
|
| 45,569.58 | |
| 258.90 | |
| 258.90 |
Page 2
Charity No. 1182253
LEO Computers Society Balance Sheet At 31 December 2024
| ASSETS Current Assets Other Current Assets Accrued Income Stock LEO Remembered 2nd Edition Total Stock Total Other Current Assets Accounts Receivable Accounts Receivable Total Accounts Receivable Cash at bank and in hand Lloyds Bank - Current a/c Lloyds Bank - Savings a/c Total Cash at bank and in hand Total Current Assets Current Liabilities Accounts Payable Accounts Payable Total Accounts Payable Total Current Liabilities NET CURRENT ASSETS TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILI... NET ASSETS Capital and Reserves Accumulated Funds Restricted Funds Restricted Fund - LEO Plaque Restricted Funds-Preservation Heritage Project Oral History Total Restricted Funds-Preservat... Total Restricted Funds Unrestricted Funds Total Accumulated Funds Retained Income Income for the Year Available funds |
31 Dec 24 123.75 148.67 148.67 272.42 9.10 9.10 648.39 64,720.08 65,368.47 65,649.99 42,936.00 42,936.00 42,936.00 22,713.99 22,713.99 22,713.99 1,148.32 1 4,014.07 5,992.24 2 10,006.31 11,154.63 11,559.36 3 22,713.99 -258.90 4 258.90 22,713.99 |
|---|---|
Page 1
At 31 December 2024
Charity No. 1182253
LEO Computers Society Balance Sheet
| Balance At 31 Decem |
|
|---|---|
| Notes DR CR | |
| 1. | LEO Plaque Expenses 16.00 |
| 2. | Oral History Expenses 163.44 |
| 3. | Unrestricted Fund - Increase 438.34 |
| 4. | Retained Income Allocated 258.90 |
| ------------- ------------ | |
| 438.34 438.34 | |
| ======= ======= |
Page 2
Charity Registration No. 1182253
LEO COMPUTERS SOCIETY
UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 20 2 4
LEO Computers Society Income and Expenditure For the Year 1st Jan to 31 Dec. 2024
Charity No. 1182253
Jan - Dec 24
| Ordinary Income/Expense Income Bank Interest Received LLoyds Donations & Grants Donations - Easy Fundraising Donations - General Donations - Gift Aid HMRC Donations - Subscription Appeal Grant - AITT Total Donations & Grants Reunion Income Attendance Fee Raffle Total Reunion Income Sales Book Sales & Publishing Book Sales Postage for Members a/c Total Book Sales & Publishing LEO Tote Bag Total Sales Total Income Cost of Goods Sold Cost of Goods Sold Total COGS Expense Bank Charges PayPal Service Charges Zettle/Paypal Charges Gross Income Total Bank Charges Committee Meeting Expenses Travel - Committee Meetings Total Committee Meeting Expenses Computer & Web Expenses Domain Name Renewal Email - additional Web Hosting Total Computer & Web Expenses LEO Plaque Cleaning Plaque Total LEO Plaque Newsletter/LEO Matters Postage Total Newsletter/LEO Matters Office Expense Computer Equipment Postage & Stamps Total Office Expense Oral History & Heritage Project Land Archivist |
265.19 106.98 20.00 123.75 625.00 42,936.00 43,811.73 1,520.00 175.00 1,695.00 36.00 14.95 50.95 18.00 68.95 |
|---|---|
| 45,840.87 12.39 |
|
| 12.39 | |
| 45,828.48 0.68 0.71 1.39 0.00 0.00 0.00 48.52 259.06 307.58 16.00 16.00 5.49 5.49 104.99 18.14 123.13 42,936.00 |
Page 1
Charity No. 1182253
For the Year 1st Jan to 31 Dec. 2024
LEO Computers Society Income and Expenditure
| Oral History OH Travel-Meetings/Sustinence Total Oral History Total Oral History & Heritage Project Publishing Postage & Carriage Postage Total Postage & Carriage Total Publishing Reunion Expenses Reunion Expenses Total Reunion Expenses Uncategorized Expenses Postage & Stamps - Merchandise Travel - General Total Uncategorized Expenses Total Expense Net Ordinary Income Income for the Year |
Jan - Dec 24 |
|---|---|
| 163.44 163.44 43,099.44 5.85 5.85 5.85 1,920.00 1,920.00 1.90 88.80 90.70 |
|
| 45,569.58 | |
| 258.90 | |
| 258.90 |
Page 2
Charity No. 1182253
LEO Computers Society Balance Sheet At 31 December 2024
| ASSETS Current Assets Other Current Assets Accrued Income Stock LEO Remembered 2nd Edition Total Stock Total Other Current Assets Accounts Receivable Accounts Receivable Total Accounts Receivable Cash at bank and in hand Lloyds Bank - Current a/c Lloyds Bank - Savings a/c Total Cash at bank and in hand Total Current Assets Current Liabilities Accounts Payable Accounts Payable Total Accounts Payable Total Current Liabilities NET CURRENT ASSETS TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILI... NET ASSETS Capital and Reserves Accumulated Funds Restricted Funds Restricted Fund - LEO Plaque Restricted Funds-Preservation Heritage Project Oral History Total Restricted Funds-Preservat... Total Restricted Funds Unrestricted Funds Total Accumulated Funds Retained Income Income for the Year Available funds |
31 Dec 24 123.75 148.67 148.67 272.42 9.10 9.10 648.39 64,720.08 65,368.47 65,649.99 42,936.00 42,936.00 42,936.00 22,713.99 22,713.99 22,713.99 1,148.32 1 4,014.07 5,992.24 2 10,006.31 11,154.63 11,559.36 3 22,713.99 -258.90 4 258.90 22,713.99 |
|---|---|
Page 1
At 31 December 2024
Charity No. 1182253
LEO Computers Society Balance Sheet
| Balance At 31 Decem |
|
|---|---|
| Notes DR CR | |
| 1. | LEO Plaque Expenses 16.00 |
| 2. | Oral History Expenses 163.44 |
| 3. | Unrestricted Fund - Increase 438.34 |
| 4. | Retained Income Allocated 258.90 |
| ------------- ------------ | |
| 438.34 438.34 | |
| ======= ======= |
Page 2