Mary Coombs, who has died aged 93, was the first woman in the world trained to program a computer for business applications. She worked on the Lyons Electronic Office – Leo – the computer built in the early 1950s by the catering company J Lyons & Co to automate the back office for its national chain of 250 teashops, three vast Corner Houses in London, and sales of cakes, tea and ice-cream.
In 2001, old Leo hands celebrated the 50th anniversary of the world’s first computerised office job, Bakery Valuations, which ran on Leo as a routine application starting in November 1951. The anniversary brought Coombs’ role into the public eye for the first time. With her astonishingly detailed memory, sharp mind and engaging personality, she found herself frequently called upon to give interviews for print, radio and television, helping to bring back to life a largely forgotten episode in the history of British computing.
