Mr. Keith Lonsdale

Born in 1923, and a graduate of the College of Technology, University of Manchester, in 1945, he worked at Salford Electrical Instruments as development engineer, then AC. Cossor, and joined Ferranti in September 1948 as computer development engineer. He was appointed Senior Engineer in 1950 and Chief Engineer of the newly formed Computer Department in 1953. In 1961 he was appointed Manager of the Technical Services Department and Manager of West Gorton Factories in 1963. He worked with Brian Pollard and Tom Kilburn to construct the Ferranti Mark I. This machine, the production version of the University prototype, was delivered in February 1951 and is thus believed to be the world's first commercially available computer. In September 1963 the Ferranti Computer Department was sold to ICT and he transferred to Letchworth where he remained as Manager of the Computer Division of the Engineering Services Organisation until 1971, when he left to move to Scotland. In ?Turing?s Cathedral? by George Dyson he is in a photo with Alan Turing and Brian Pollard at the console of the Ferranti Mark 1 computer at the University of Manchester in 1951.