In 1977 I left school and got myself a job with BOC Datasolve. I say ‘got myself’ a job, like I went out of my way to secure it for myself but in reality, it was nothing like that. What really happened was this:- my mum, bless her, screamed and shouted at me until I capitulated and agreed to find one. Up until then, I was more than happy rolling out of bed at around 10.30, stumbling down the stairs and mumbling, “Wosfa breakfast?” and then being a little put out when my mum didn’t rustle me up a full English.
The Fool
I was a fool back then. Some say not much has changed in that regard but really, I was. I didn’t want a job any more than anyone else did. I was more than happy swanning about doing next to nothing at school. So why did I leave? Primarily because I didn’t understand the rules of life, as applied by my mother. Ergo, you either studied at school or college for a job, or you got a job. There was no in-between. No ‘no-mans-land’, no DMZ, no working on both but doing neither.
The Land of Grey
It was a very black-and-white approach to life. But I wrongly assumed there was an area of grey in the middle of the Venn diagram. Somewhere where I could exist, neither at school, nor at work. Just surviving, off the grid. But the mystical ‘land of the grey’ was nothing more than a figment of my febrile imagination and consequently only existed in my mind. What I should’ve done was bum around at school for another year, just doing enough to get by but not so much that it was taxing. But boredom clung to me like an old coat. The problem was, my mum soon grew bored of me being at home too.
Shock & Awe
I’d stayed on in the 6th form and passed ‘O’ Level Geology. But by October 1977 I had lost interest in A Levels and decided to leave. Big mistake And about two weeks later, I had a very rude awakening from my Mum. She literally woke me up one morning, quite rudely in fact.
“You’re not lying around here all day every day like a mumper.1 If you’re not at school, you can go and find yourself a flaming job!” she bawled from the end of the bed.
Still in a daze since it was not yet 11, I squinted into the bright daylight streaming through the now open curtains and said, “Can I have a cup of tea first?”
“You can have tea when you get up and not a minute before my lad,” she responded angrily.
“Alright! Alright! I’m getting up.”
Careers Office
So, suitably chastised for my inherent laziness, I alighted from my pit. I phoned my friend Robbie Tucker to see if he had any ideas about work. He was also currently unemployed and as it transpired, was receiving similar earache at home from his own parental incumbents.
“Why don’t we go to the Careers Office in Terminus House and see what they have?” he suggested.
With my Mum firmly on the warpath, it was imperative to be seen to be doing the right thing. I explained the plan to her and she seemed content. For now. At least I’d get dinner on a plate this evening and not over my head. Later, Robbie and I met up, walked into town to the Careers Office, asked at reception what we needed to do to secure some form of employment and the receptionist made an appointment for both of us to see a careers advisor.
I went back a few days later for my appointment and spoke to a woman about what sorts of jobs I wanted and where I wanted to work. I didn’t have enough “O” Levels for a job in banking like one of my friend’s, so I asked about computers, since my brother-in-law was a Systems Analyst (whatever one of those was).2
BOC Datasolve
She scanned through her Rollerdex card system of current roles and found something that she thought might be suitable.
“Here’s one,” she announced brightly. “It’s in the City,” she said. “With BOC Datasolve,” she added with emphasis. She looked up, over the card. “Are you bothered about working in the City?”
I shrugged. “Should I be?”
“No, not really. It’s just that, well, some people like to work…nearer to home.”
I couldn’t think of anything worse than working near where I lived. Where was the fun in that? I wanted to get out, experience the world. Spread my wings. I just didn’t necessarily want to do it before lunchtime, that was all.
“That’s fine with me,” I replied.
“Ok, good. So it’s a Trainee Data Controller role, in the City with BOC Datasolve. Does it sound like your sort of thing?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said, having no idea where the City was, what a Data Controller was or who BOC Datasolve were. “It sounds great.” And then after a moment of hesitation and reflection I added, “What is a Data Controller exactly?” It sounded remarkably like a job for someone who controlled data and data was synonymous with computers.
She stared back and smiled as though her face had frozen into a rictus grin. After a long, uncomfortable pause and still smiling she said, “I knew you would ask me that and I actually have no idea!”
She scanned the card again looking for clues, then looked up and said, “It doesn’t say much else except it’s working in a team in a busy computer bureau. I could contact them and see if they would like to interview you. Is that ok?”
“That’s fine,” I said and she explained she’d be in touch. Potential interview sealed, I could return to sleeping until they got back to me.
Bureau
I never thought to ask what a Computer Bureau was, I didn’t know anything about BOC Datasolve other than they had some type of red and white stripe logo like a drinking straw. I didn’t know how much they might pay me, whether there were any benefits, holiday, sickness; nothing. All I knew was I might have an interview, and that was the one thing that would keep my mum off my back. But of course, that wasn’t enough information to secure such a positive reaction.
Me: “I’ve got an interview.”
Mum: “That’s good. Where?”
Me: “London.”
Mum: “London? Where in London?”
Me: “In the City.”
Mum: “Whereabouts in the City?”
Me: “Don’t know.”
Mum: “How do you know where to go then?”
Me: “Don’t know.”
Mum: “So who is it for?”
Me: “BOC.”
Mum: “BOC? Who are they when they’re at home?”
Me: “Don’t know.”
Mum: “So when’s the interview?”
Me: “Don’t know?”
Mum: “Don’t know? How do you know when to go?”
Me: “Don’t know. It’s doing computers.”
Mum: “Computers? What do you do with ’em?”
Me: “Don’t know.”
Mum: “Well how do they know if you’re any good?”
Me: “Don’t know.”
Mum: “Don’t know much do you?”
Me: “Not really.”
This conversation went on for some time. But later, I overheard my Mum talking to Ivy next door, over the fence. “You’ll never guess,” she said. “My Lee’s got an interview with a company that does computers.” Ivy replied, “Well I never!” “I know,” said my mum. “He’s gonna be a boffin!” They cackled at this, then Ivy said, “Don’t think my Gary’s going to do computers. He likes body building and going to the pub too much.”
A few days later I received a call from the careers office to say they had secured an interview for me and asked if I would I like to attend. A date was set towards the end of October and my Dad kindly offered to take me up in the car. Presumably to ensure I got there on time and to therefore maximise the opportunity of being offered the job, as that would ensure a quiet life for him as well as me.
Also, Old Street in EC1, where the interview was to be held, was about a five-minute drive from Eagle Wharf Road where my Dad had worked for many years as a printer, until he got a job on ‘the papers’. He was therefore, well versed in driving into this part of London.
Bib & Tucker
For the interview I wore my best suit and tie which happened to double as my only suit and tie. I got to the office with ten minutes to spare. I walked up from where my Dad had parked just off Old Street and went in. Reception was on the third floor, obviously, and I nervously climbed the stairs and introduced myself. I must have been in a bit of a mild panic because the receptionist Sandra, spent most of the time talking to me, calming me down and telling me Mike, who I was seeing, was really nice and I would be fine.
She was right. Mike Burlingham was a great manager; too good in fact. The interview went really well and we ended up talking about music, favourite bands and how I was starting my own band and learning the guitar. He talked about Elvis Costello being a Computer Operator and writing songs while on shift and suggested I could be next. A few weeks later I received a letter from BOC Datasolve dated the 14th November 1977. It said:-
“Dear Mr Adams,
Further to your recent interview I am pleased to confirm that we wish to offer you the position of Trainee Data Controller to be based at Old Street at an annual salary of £1,704 per annum.”
It was my first and only interview, so I had a 100% success rate. I wrote back, told them I would accept and I started a few weeks later, at the end of November.
Datasolve was a Computer Bureau which had been acquired by the British Oxygen Company and so BOC Datasolve was born. I had a wonderful time there (I really did – it was like going to work with your friends and being paid for it) and to provide a little IT related trivia (even though the term IT hadn’t been invented yet), BOC Datasolve sold computer time on their mainframes to companies that didn’t own their own computers, which in 1977 numbered quite a lot.
48K
BOC Datasolve ran two mainframes from the computer room at the offices in Old Street. The smaller mainframe was an ICL 1904A which boasted a whopping 48K of RAM.3 The ‘monster’ as it was affectionately known, was an ICL 2904, which had a staggering 64K of RAM; but the 2904’s biggest selling point was it came with ‘a monitor’. There was no debate; this truly was cutting edge technology. The mainframes were so big though, they couldn’t all fit it in the computer room. They had to create a purpose-built room in the basement to house the 1904. To provide some clarity on this, my current mobile, a Samsung Galaxy S20 has 8Gb of RAM. Which means in terms of memory, my phone is about 170,000 times larger than the 48k mainframe was.
That was my first ever job. Proper job. Full-time job. I’d had a paper round since I was 11 and a Saturday job since I was 15.
And it really was the best job I have ever had. Easily. It wasn’t without its downsides though and I decided to leave in 1979 to pursue my career elsewhere.
Working Life
So, fast forward to 1995, 18 years later. By now I had rattled through the following companies:-
- BOC Datasolve – 1977 – 1979
- Conoco Oil – 1979 – 1980
- East Herts District Council – 1980 – 1984
- ICL – 1984 – 1987
- Harlow Council – 1987 – 1992
- Legal Aid Board – 1992 – 1993
- BP Oil – 1993 – 1994
- CitiBank – 1994
- BP Oil – 1994 – 1995
- Data Sciences – 1995
The companies in bold above were all as a contractor. The last one on the list, Data Sciences, was working on a client site in Docklands.
Sunbury
I’d been working there for approximately 6 months when one of the managers asked me about my knowledge of Sybase. They were looking to bring in some new business using Sybase Relational Database technology. We had a chat and he suggested we spoke to the team who were looking at the project. They were based in a Data Sciences office in Sunbury-upon-Thames. I didn’t mind. He was driving and it was a day out, so I agreed. Plus, as a contractor, I’d happily shift boxes all day if they were paying me by the hour.
We drove down a few days later, parked up and went in. There was something oddly familiar about the building, about the offices but I’d never been here before. I’d never even been to Sunbury-upon-Thames before either. We sat at a meeting table in the main office and started discussing the project. After a while they started talking numbers and I zoned out momentarily and started looking around. I noted the offices were a little shabby, not unusual for a computer company. And then, sitting on a shelf nearby I noticed some documentation. We had a break and I reached up and pulled the folder down. Looking it over I said to one of the guys sitting nearby, “Do you know what this is?”
“Yes,” he replied. “It’s the documentation for a legacy accounting system. We’re still running it for a few clients.”
I nodded slowly to indicate he should continue. He didn’t. So I did. “So where did it come from and what’s it doing here?” I enquired.
Stripey Lines
He settled himself in for the long haul and considered his response. “Hmm, well…” he mused as he pursed his lips and tapped his chin rhythmically with his index finger. “Where to start? Where to start? Ok, so we’ve been running this system for years. And when I say “years”, I mean, years. It’s one of those systems that was built by some propeller-head in the 70’s and was designed to run for a while and then get upgraded. Except nobody had the time or the money to do it, so we just kept patching the shit out of it to keep it going. Still works though. Mind you, with all the talk of Y2K, who knows how much longer it has.” He furrowed his brow. “Anyway, why are you so interested?”
“Well,” I said, showing him the front cover of the folder. “It’s these red and white candy stripes around the edges. That’s what caught my eye. Why are they on there?”
“Oh, I see. I gotcha. I gotcha. Well, I don’t know all the history but back in the day, Data Sciences used to belong to… Er, who was it? It was…..Thorn. Thorn EMI, I think….Anyway, they split from Thorn, took the old name back, merged with another company called, I dunno, something or other…and voila! became Data Sciences.”
“Oh, ok. That’s…..interesting.” I was interested oddly enough. “And before Thorn?” I ventured. “What happened before Thorn got involved?” I felt sure I already knew the answer.
“Before Thorn?” he mused, glancing at the ceiling. “Well, like I say, I don’t know the history that well, so before Thorn…..before then I’m not actually sure.” He looked around. “Hey Frank?” he said to the person at the next desk. Frank looked up, bored already. “Who owned this place,” he asked, indicating the offices, “you know, before Thorn?”
Frank
Frank sat up, a little more interested since the question wasn’t of a technical, work-related nature. “As I recall,” said Frank, already beginning to warm to the subject, “Thorn EMI bought the company from B…B….BOC….BOC, something….” he said as he tried to dredge up the name from some distant memory bank in his mind.
“Datasolve?” I offered.
“That’s it!” he responded. “Datasolve. BOC Datasolve. Yes! How did you know?”
“I used to work there.” I replied. “Years back.”
“Oh, well, you’ve come full circle then,” he said. “Yes, I remember now. The name Data Sciences came from the merging of the companies Datasolve and Software Sciences. Hence, Data Sciences.”
A small article on how BOC Datasolve became Data Sciences can be found here
Binary Solutions
And there it was. It had taken nearly 20 years, but I had just discovered I was now working for the same company I’d joined in 1977 and left in 1979. Later in the 90’s Data Sciences was acquired by IBM, so I contracted with them until they lost the contract I worked on, to CMG in early 2000. I stayed on and became a ‘permie’ on the 1st Jan 2001 (I joined an IT company on one of the few binary dates available i.e. 01.01.01), then CMG became Logica which then became CGI, and that’s where I continued working until I retired in 2020 at the grand old age of 59. So, technically, I could’ve stayed at Datasolve and still ended up at the same place. It was almost as if there was some greater power at work.
Amdahl
And that is how you work for the same company twice and not even know it. And the odd thing about the Sunbury office? I’d never been there before but the office belonged to Datasolve and in the 70’s, hosted an Amdahl Super Computer4 or something like that. The office (and the Amdahl) used to feature in a Datasolve newspaper we used to receive every month or so. So, it’s no wonder they seemed familiar.
Canteen
And while we’re on the subject of office coincidences, during the 80’s I worked for ICL (International Computers Limited) and for about a year worked in a computer room in Cavendish Road, Stevenage. In 2007, while working for CMG, I moved onto a project run by Fujitsu…at Cavendish Road, Stevenage. ICL had been bought out by STC in the 80’s and then by Fujitsu in the 90’s. The computer room no longer existed. It had been turned into a staff canteen. And while I was there, I often sat in the canteen, feet up, drinking tea and reading a book. You know, just to relive old times. Happy days.
Back to Blogs – Lees Blogosphere
- Mumper (noun). One who begs, a beggar
- I’m still none the wiser as to what a Systems Analyst actually does. I asked one once and he shrugged and said, “A bit of this and a bit of that.” So there you have it.
- 48 kilobytes of Random Access Memory
- Gene Amdahl was a computer whizz who worked for IBM. His ideas on computer design didn’t fit with the more conservative outlook of ‘Big Blue’ so he left and built his own
I am often accused of writing stories that are too long but they fade in comparision to this tomb. Very entertaining, great photos. I don’t remember you smoking when we were young. I also worked for a computer bureau that sold time on it’ mainframe when I left school and like you had a 100% interview success rate. I also retired when I was 59 although I work as a photographer now, But that’s not a real job, I can stay in bed until 11 if I want to.
Ha! some good coincidences. It was Roy that got me smoking! A terrible influence. Anyway, this story isn’t long. I edited it down. You should’ve seen the previous version. Anyway, it’s good to hear from you old chap. Or should I say, Buxton?
I forgot to mention that my mum worked in Terminus House for Social Services while we were at Netteswell. One day, during school time she looked out of her window on the 7th floor and saw me walking through the town centre. She phoned the school and reported me for truancy. Luckily someone in the school office came to check and found me sitting in class. I guess the downside of wearing uniforms was that we all looked the same. Not you though, you was tiny.
Is it time to bring back the sendng of Christmas cards to each other, Aggis.