I am afraid my memories of LEOs were from afar. While I remember as a trainee operator on the Spectra 70/45 (pretending to be a System4/50) I was shown around LEO 3/1 back in 1967. Of which some of the more experienced shift leaders that I was working with, were very proud.

I think both Colin Hobson and Pete(r) Sinfield had previously worked on III/1. We used to cover night shifts at Docos House on the Post Office’s Spectra 70/45 where I was told a LEO lived. Plus of course occasional night shifts at Minerva Road on System 4/50 number 1.

Then in 1978 I joined Post Office Region following an assignment in Sweden where I worked for Bob Knight, who introduced me to PO Region. I worked on the account for about 9 years mainly as project manager. Amongst my early projects were the installation of 2900 mainframes into a number of PO Computer Centres. At Portsmouth, where I saw the LEO in the Telephone Exchange Building in the centre of the town and at Charles House. I think there were 2 or maybe 3 LEOs in Charles House at this time.

Obviously I worked alongside PO Region’s Leo expert Tony Morgan and one of his former trials operators Bruce Elkington, who I worked with closely on both pre and post sales tasks.