Tributes

From Frank S

Graham Smith passed away peacefully on Saturday afternoon (6/1/2018). Graham  joined us for the MOGS Christmas Lunch in December and although obviously not a well man he appeared to enjoy meeting with the group at the Orange Tree. Together with Sam Bond  Graham introduced me to the Orange Tree in 1982 and it soon became my lunch time watering hole. Graham married for the first time about 8 years ago.

From Ian G

Like Frank my principal interface with Graham was on Friday lunchtime in the pub, where he was a pleasant and genial complement to the other reprobates. I'm glad he found someone to love in his latter years.
He was an active contributor to this wiki - his paper on the Cyprus AFTN message switching system was published only a couple of weeks before his death.

From Peter B

Graham told me at the Christmas lunch that he was not well & that it would be his last such lunch.. He had known that he had bowel cancer but had only been told the prognosis that morning before the lunch. He had been given four months, not the three weeks he actually got. I thought he was extremely brave to still come to the lunch after having just been told such news but I got the chance to buy him a malt & say goodbye.

I first met Graham at Coval Lodge on Rainsford Road in 1966 when we both came for interviews. We worked together on various activities over the years & I also spent much time with him & Sam Bond & others funding breweries & distilleries & putting the world to rights.

From John K

I am sad to learn of Graham Smith's passing.  He was my section leader for a time,  and like you I drank with him and Sam Bond in the Orange Tree.  Graham was very knowledgeable about a lot of things,  including the GEC OS4000 systems where his four letter username was SGH2 (so his middle name must have started with an H).  I also played bridge with him,  and we won the Billericay pairs championships one year.  Billericay was his home town,  he lived and cared for his mother in their home in Perry St for very many years.

From Cliff H

It was with great sadness that I learnt of the passing of Graham. He was my section leader when I first joined MRSL in (I think) 1976, and it turned out we had a shared interest - bridge. We played regularly at the MASC bridge club, and when his regular partner moved away I took his place. Unfortunately, after I left MRSL (shortly before the disintegration of our defence business began, though the writing was on the wall), I lost contact with Graham, but I believe he continued to play bridge regularly right up until the end of his life.

Funeral

From Colin - Graham's stepson

The funeral will be on Tuesday 6th February at Chelmsford Crematorium at 11.30 followed by a buffet and refreshments at the Secret Garden within the Writtle Nursery a short walk away. Lots of parking available.
Please, no flowers but if anyone wants to make a donation Graham requested it to go to the St Lukes Hospice.

Autobiography

A Note from Peter Bain

Just before he died last year Graham dictated a set of notes describing his career with Marconi. Subsequently I reviewed & amended these where necessary to what I believe Graham intended.

Peter

Graham Smith – January 2 2018

It all started in early 1966. I was at Queen Mary’s College in London reading Mathematics, looking for a job in computing. I did the Milk Round & I think I saw someone from English Electric who passed my papers onto The Marconi Company. I was invited to an interview at Chelmsford and was put up at the Coval Lodge Hotel. There were a large number of undergraduates at various hotels around the town. This was when I first met Peter Bain who was one of the other undergraduates. On the first day we were introduced to the company & taken around various Marconi sites. They were obviously trying to persuade us to join the company. I had taken a pack of cards with me so that evening, at the hotel four of us played Bridge. On the second day I had a formal interview, I think by someone in Automation Division. I obviously impressed them because a little while later I got a job offer.

Incidentally, someone else whom I worked with at Marconi was John Coster (?), who also went to Queen Mary’s College but was in the year after me.

In August or September, I went off to Chelmsford, having previously obtained digs with Mrs Hooks In Moulsham Street (?) I started work at the Research Labs, Great Baddow, joining Central Automation Services Department (CASD). The Departmental Manager was Arthur Young & the Deputy Manager was Derek Watkins. The Department was about 30 strong & produced the computer programs for the various projects the company had. After a few weeks able tutelage by Alan Dobbs, the Training Manager, in the User Code programming language for the company’s Myriad computer, I joined a newly formed team to write the computer program for the Cyprus Message Switching System. Brian Hammans was the Section Leader. (I have written another document with the details of this project.) After two years we went out to Cyprus to install the Phase 1 system. This was not successful, so we came back to Chelmsford. I moved digs to Mr & Mrs Chakley of Parker Road and for the next two years worked on Phase 2, which ended successfully in May 1970.

Back in Chelmsford I joined the Flight Plan Processing System (FPPS) Project for the new London Air Traffic Control Centre (LATCC) at West Drayton. This was part of the new UK Mediator Air Traffic Control System. I was based at Kensal House on Springfield Road. After a year or two there we moved to the Writtle Road Works. By this time the overall company had been reorganised into separate management companies. We had become the Programming Department of Marconi Radar Systems Limited (MRSL) and were now about 100 strong. Derek Watkins was the manager.

I then joined Keith Ryder to create basic software for the new Locus 16 computer MRSL had developed. I spent many a year working on developing software for the Software Development Suite for Locus 16 which itself ran on Locus 16. Over the years this suite came to comprise a DataCode 1 Assembler, a Coral 66 Compiler plus the System Link Program that put all the bits of software together. We also developed two major packages: the Text Management System (TMS) & the System Integration & Build System (SIBS), which enabled projects to put together major software systems. These packages were for use on GEC computers which had taken on the role of being the development suite for Locus 16. Later we sold these packages to a number of GEC Computer’s customers. I also got involved with device drivers for hardware the company developed.

After various reorganisations we were now the Data Systems Division of MRSL with manager Arthur Young with deputy Derek Watkins. During this time I had been promoted first to Section Leader & then to Group Chief. During my time as a section leader, some of my section were working on the software for the Martello 3D radar & I quickly realised that they knew nothing about radar. I remembered that in my early days at Marconi I had gone to a Marconi College Radar Appreciation Course held at the local Technical College. It was given by various members of the company who talked about their own speciality one evening per week. So I thought I would contact the College and asked them if we could put together some sort of course, which we did, & this lasted for many years.

By the mid-1980s support work for our traditional Locus 16 development suite was coming to the end with the arrival of Intel & Motorola microprocessor-based Locus 16 processors. Helpfully, at about this time, we started up a new trading division, Marconi Data Systems with Divisional Manager Alan Greaves. This included an in-house software house, offering support to anybody who needed software development services, in practice other Marconi companies. So I spent a year or two with Marconi Avionics at Rochester on their anti-submarine sonar system. It was interesting to see similarities with how radar works, though it was very much slower. I also spent some time at Marconi Avionics, Basildon. I still have the tie. (Was this on the Phoenix system, a pilot-less observation drone for the Army?)

By 1990 I was getting stale & doing a lot of legacy work when I noticed in the local paper that Marconi Communications Systems Limited (MCSL) at New Street were advertising for software development people and that informal interviews were to be held one evening. I went along & was interviewed by a Mr Watkins whom I had met once or twice before (not the same person as at MRSL). I was asked back for a formal interview & they offered me a job. I think they regretted it ever since!

In 2006 I had been working for Marconi for 40 years & along with other 40 year-ers & some 35 year-ers Val & I were invited to a big bash in Naples by Finmeccanica who then owned MCSL. In 2007 I’d had enough working so I retired. Thus, I finished my time at Marconi with the Communications Company.