50th Anniversary Reunion

On graduation in 1964 from Glasgow (BSc, Honours Maths and Nat Phil. 3rd class), I had several job offers, but took the most interesting, and promising despite it being lowest-paying: this was with ICT, which morphed into ICL after absorbing English Electric and Elliotts. This decision delivered well on its promise, with training on the job in customer support roles which was well ahead of any academic courses at that time.  An unexpected bonus was marrying Joan, the secretary of the (American) Professor of Computer Science at Queen's, Belfast (one of my technical support customers for ICT).

Another customer (Andrew Colin, professor of Computer Science at Strathclyde) approached me in 1970 to join an Edinburgh University startup called Conversational Software (CSL): this was Donald Michie's initiative, an interesting maverick Professor of Machine Intelligence.  A bonus was a move from Manchester to Edinburgh.  Michie believed that their language POP-2 had commercial value: its singular characteristic was that code could be written to modify itself, thus potentially becoming closer to a user's needs.  There was potential for this, but the hardware was very far from delivering sufficient benefit. CSL however sent me to the USA to demonstrate POP-2 in several locations and to attend the Fall Joint Conference/ Exhibition on technology in Las Vegas.  The trip was self-funded by results, but POP-2 was too far ahead of its time, and in 1972 I was persuaded to rejoin ICL, still in Edinburgh.  This entailed a close collaboration with ERCC on an ICL 1908 (plus a second 4-75 to tide them over), a very interesting and educational role, but the threat of a move to London was never far away, and I decided, now with 3 sons, to secure my location with a local job.

It was a courageous initiative for Lothian Health Board in 1975 to offer me, a private sector technical sales manager, the newly-created public sector job of Information Services Officer, and I had only the vaguest notion of what would await me: I assumed a 2-year tenure (as all previous jobs) would suffice.  Wrong, by an order of magnitude!  It was Dr George Venters as my mentor who helped me up several steep and ongoing learning curves, with the support also of the LHB management team and the medical records community, and it was a privilege to be in this position which I enjoyed immensely.  In addition to line management of the Computer Services Unit and overview of medical records across Lothian, I also managed other units, including the Cancer Registry, Medical Photography Unit, and helped develop numerous clinician initiatives in computing, requiring close liaison with Edinburgh University and with the Registrar General for Scotland.  I served on the Confidentiality Advisory Committee supervising medical research projects, and on a group on which the 4 UK countries coordinated administrative matters of common concern.

In 1983 Joan and I separated, later divorcing, and she died in 2012.

About 1984 the SHHD decided on the need for a major review of IT and IS across the NHS in Scotland.  Negotiations resulted in a Treasury civil servant (Tom Devon) being seconded for a year to do this.  His approach was to sit at the back of any meeting he felt like attending, but say nothing: so he was quickly ignored.  One day he asked me for my CV and I became his support for the review project.  Tom was an inspirational polymath, with the personality and strength to exploit his considerable abilities: I learned more from him than any other person.  We gelled well, and the project was highly interactive, at all levels.  I became seconded to SHHD and worked there 4 days a week, leaving one day for my LHB duties.  While there, I wrote one of the series of Circulars issued to Health Boards, only to find it on my LHB desk on my next visit: so I replied to my own letter!

Having reached a draft conclusion of the review, Tom set about testing its recommendations: this included a heavy negotiation with a would-be supplier of hospital systems, which started around 3pm and finished at around 8am the next day, having secured a 60% discount for 32 systems, after several phone calls with Data General HQ in America.  I will not forget his statement that he was ”but a mere humble civil servant: it was for the supplier in their commercial judgement to make an offer”: this was at considerable variance with observation!  

Proposals were made for a new body with a  management structure and style which were clearly aimed at subsequent privatisation, led by an entrepreneurial director.  Tom did not get this post (SHHD were scared stiff!) and instead I was asked to front it pending a recruitment process.  A civil servant from Scottish Office Computer Services was later appointed, and the new body (DHSIS, later HSD) had a much more pedestrian mode than Tom had envisaged.  

With my SHHD secondment having ended I also left LHB and secured a further secondment to Information Services Division (ISD) with a remit to investigate data modelling as a basis for system design of patient treatment pathways, along with suitable hardware and software on which to develop this.  The resultant appointment by ISD of a Data Standards Manager from Edinburgh University Data Library to take over this initiative led to ongoing useful value from the exercise.  I returned to HSD and undertook with Ron Anderson and Price Waterhouse a Software-Led Procurement of a hospital system development environment, for which we received the industry Recognition of Open Systems Achievement (ROSA) award, but the product had only modest success - again, hardware was not quite up to the job.  I then inherited a troubled procurement under PA's auspices for the redevelopment of the Community Health Index: this project was failing and had to be managed to an unproductive end, at the instruction of SHHD: rescue was ruled out as too difficult.  I learned that the PA partner lost his job as a result.

In 1995 HSD had savings to make and issued a ridiculously generous offer of early retirement with 10 added years of pension contributions. I was delighted to take this opportunity (albeit at very short notice) so that I could work independently.  Making contact with Tom Devon, who was in a similar position, allowed me to work within his Create Consulting business, and we quickly agreed that we would not tangle with formal procurement processes but undertake Pro Bono work with potential for future development.  We did work for the Police Federation (a strange body), and on a charity-linked initiative which got us the opportunity to present at 10 Downing St.  On my own account I worked for ISD (various projects) and for the English “Connecting for Health” project in Leeds: a top-down big-bang project which fulfilled the expectations of many by achieving very little.  Tom subsequently lost his way and tragically shot himself in 2015.

For his 87th birthday in 2000, my widower father had a dinner party to which he invited all the single women he knew (a style I admired!), with my role being to supervise.  My younger sister was the go-between to reassure the single women.  This was how I met Jackie, a widow who moved from Milngavie to join me in Edinburgh later that year: we married in 2006, in Gibraltar.  The link was that her former father-in-law, and my father, were members of the Milngavie Angling Club, so it was fish that brought us together.

In 2003 we decided to leave Edinburgh in search of more peace and an affordable garden, and searched the lowlands from Gourock to Dunbar, finishing up in Stirling in an amazing house halfway up the castle rock with spectacular views, which however needed a major upgrade.  I chose to project manage this as well as participate in it as a joint venture with the builder: this worked very well, but meant that I no longer had the time, energy or inclination to continue working for others, so this marked the end of my formal working career.  Having been unimpressed by the local U3A group, I joined Probus Stirling, and also served 2.5 years as a Trustee of the Stirling Citizens Advice Bureau, which was both illuminating and worthwhile.  I am occasionally still called on for technical advice by relatives and friends, mostly elderly!

One more step: in 2014 we recognised that our house was old, difficult to manage and maintain and (looking ahead to frailty) we needed to downsize - something my father had failed to do until at 92 he had had to enter a care home.  So our new house is younger and manageable in all the ways the old one was problematical, but still in Stirling.  Since Jackie's 2 sons are in Glasgow, and 2 of my 3 sons are in west Edinburgh (the oldest is in York), while my 2 sisters are also local, our family connectivity is very good.

Camper Vans have always played a major role in my lifestyle, from the first in 1965 up to the 10th today, to secure trouble free touring until age 85, at which time options will be reviewed!    All my vans have been multi-purpose and used regularly (for many purposes).  Camper vans offer a comfortable working/office space on location and I used vans 5 and 6 in this mode.  We have toured through most of Europe in these vans over 40 years, and by air to further afield.

My valued scientific education has allowed me to follow key progress in cosmology, quantum matters, the mechanics of life, genetics and evolution, as well as the physics underlying technology, which I use to the full to make life easier and compensate for declining faculties.  Other interests include genealogy through which I have developed a wide family network and history; also the provision of public services, particularly transport and its underlying technologies.  Photography and the use of colour have been constant themes throughout my life, with modest artistic endeavours resulting from time to time.