English Electric Computers
English Electric Computers was a British computer company, a subsidiary of English Electric, a large British industrial conglomerate producing airplanes, locomotives, etc.
In 1949, a group of English Electric personnel helped with the work on the Pilot ACE; this led to English Electric being able to produce a commercial version of the Pilot ACE, called DEUCE, in 1955; 33 were built.
In 1963, Lyons, the parent of Leo Computers (makers of the ground-breaking LEO) decided that Leo, although successful, was ancillary to their main business focus, so they decided to merge Leo Computers with English Electric's computer business, forming English Electric Leo Computers (from which Lyons exited in 1964).
In 1964 Marconi’s computer business was added, thereby forming English Electric Leo Marconi (EELM); in 1967, English Electric absorbed Elliott-Automation.
In 1968, as the final step in the wave of mergers which consolidated the British computer industry, its commercial data-processing work was merged with International Computers and Tabulators (ICT) to form ICL. Its real-time work was merged in 1969 with that of GEC, Marconi, Elliott Automation, to form Marconi Elliott Computer Systems Limited, re-named GEC Computers in 1971.
Further reading
- Martin Campbell-Kelly, ICL: A Business and Technical History, Clarendon, Oxford, 1989 - EEC coverage is scattered throughout; consult the index - the merger with ICT is covered in Chapter 12, pp. 255-264
