Reference number
  • SIS
Date
  • 1924-1994
Level
  • Collection
Description
  • Internal documentation about management systems, J. Lyons & Company Ltd., and about LEO computer. The archive includes two of Simmons' books: 'Management of change. The role of information', London, 1970; and 'Leo and the managers', London, 1962.
Extent
  • 4 boxes
Admin history
  • John Richardson Mainwaring Simmons (1902-85) read Mathematics at Cambridge University, before joining J. Lyons & Company Ltd, the caterers, as a statistician and management trainee. He became an expert on management systems, and initiated the LEO computer project. Reference: P.J. Bird, 'LEO: The First Business Computer' (Wokingham, 1994).
Access status
  • Open
Related material
  • The papers of J. Lyons and Co. Ltd have been deposited in the London Metropolitan Archives, ref. ACC/3527. A paper copy of the finding aid to these papers is available in London Metropolitan Archives and in the Centre (ref. MSS.363x/7/1).