Jim Brookes’ IT career started with iconic tech firms Ferranti and ICT in the 1960s. He worked on the iconic Atlas computer in the UK and USA, later switching to Academia. Here he set up computing departments at Queen’s University Belfast, the University of Manchester, and Bath University. He helped establish the SWERC and JANET networks. Following this was a role as Chief Executive at the British Computer Society. As an entrepreneur, he co-founded Praxis Systems.
Jim was born in Manchester during an air raid, and the Second World War loomed large in his early years. Both his parents were from a mining community. Due to family illness, both had to work in the cotton mills from the age of 14. His father educated himself at Bolton Technical College and became a Factory Manager.
After being educated at home by his mother, at Junior school Jim won a scholarship from Lancashire County Council to attend Manchester Grammar School. Here he found Maths and Physics easy. He got another scholarship to attend a college at Oxford University where he read Mathematics.
I didn’t know anything about computing until I talked to the careers people at Oxford after I’d finished my maths degree. The word didn’t appear on the syllabus anywhere to be seen. There was no reference to it. There was no equipment in Oxford either at that time. This is early ’60s, and they said, ‘Well, this new business looks as though it might take off. You might find it interesting and with a maths degree, you could do lots of different things.’
After university, Jim wrote to several computer companies and Granada TV for a job, settling on a position at Ferranti, who were working with Manchester University on a joint project to produce the biggest computer in the world, called the Atlas computer. Jim started work as an Applications Programmer under manager Peter Stocker, helping a Professor of Mechanical Engineering in Manchester University to transfer his programmes on ships’ diesel engines from an old computer called the Mercury to the new computer, the Atlas. It was at work where Jim met his wife, who worked in a different part of the organisation.
The electrical engineering building in Manchester, which is where [Atlas] was housed, was a massively large building. It’s sort of the big old Victorian type building, and the computer filled two floors. We had things like drums and magnetic tape and, yeah, there was massive chunks of hull. In fact, in the early days, Ferranti used to cost their computers by the weight, which I found out sometime later, which is ridiculous…the costs were quite interesting. When I look back at what we ended up trying to sell into America, we were talking about the equivalent of nearly half a billion pounds… in current day prices.
Jim’s supervisors realised that he had a lot of knowledge about the Atlas, so they offered him a job in the USA selling computers to the American market. Based out of Long Island, Jim travelled out to all the big firms using large computers. This included the National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s MAC project with Professor Robert M Fano. Jim and his team had a lot of interest, but as soon as the time came to seal the deal, the government invoked the Buy American Act and stopped it.
Whilst he was in the USA, Ferranti was taken over by ICT and the team were called back to the UK. Jim was tempted to stay in the USA, but eventually decided to return to the UK and from 1963-1966 worked on the launch of the 1900 series.
…the 1900 series came out of the Canadian subsidiary FP 6000 which I had originally got involved in while I was working in America. We had one project with the Canadian government, which was to put two Atlas computers, super computers, in Montreal and Toronto, and then have a network of FP6000s, Ferranti PECO 6000s, around the Northeast seaboard of America, providing computing services, which would have been fantastic, and I was going to be running that. But of course, ICL – ICT – pulled out of Canada.
…as I went through the ICT route, I moved up the management became area Sales Manager for the North for universities and national research establishments, which included me looking after the Queen’s University Belfast, and having installed it, they were looking for someone to set up a new department.
Jim moved into academia, setting up the Computing Department at Queen’s University Belfast. This was at the time of the troubles in Northern Ireland, and ultimately Jim decided to return to Manchester. Here he got involved setting up the University of Manchester Regional Computing Centre. Later, Jim moved to the University of Bath, and worked on JANET, the UK’s national academic network.
Also at this time, Jim started entrepreneurial ventures, including setting up companies for medical and scientific computing services. Praxis Systems, a company focused on safety-critical systems, had particular success in the market.
By 1986, Jim was looking for a new career move and knew about Chief Scientist John Fairclough, the President of the British Computer society (BCS). This led him to becoming the CEO of the BCS for 5 years. Throughout his career, Jim was concerned with the ethics of computing and John shared his convictions.
I gave a talk at a Rotary Club about the evils of computing and the lack of ethics in the way that computing was – could be applied – and the importance of making sure that it was looked at for the good of good of society, which is a theme that I follow all the way through my career, really. And the BCS seemed an opportunity to do something.
Both men were convinced of the importance of professionalism in the sector. They managed to convince the Engineering Council to recognise that computing was an engineering discipline. The Strategy Review Panel, now called the BCS Elite Group, was established. It got together heads of industry and big companies using IT to talk through issues, including hacking. At this time, BCS were also involved with the Parliamentary IT Committee. This resulted in the BCS getting the Computer Misuse Act 1990 onto the statute book.
The BCS also received a grant from the Department of Trade and Industry to start the Women into Technology Programme. The BCS’s IT for the Elderly and IT for Disabled People programmes involved a lot of work with the Department of Health and Alf Morris, who was the Shadow Minister for Health.
After leaving BCS, Jim decided to concentrate on freelance and consultancy work. Some came through the Society for Innovation, Technology and Modernisation (SOCITM). Others, such as the Hertfordshire joint criminal justice project, came out of the blue. Many of his contracts involved improving IT and communications infrastructures for Universities and local government. He supported the start of the Computer Conservation Society and resulting project with the Science Museum. He helped the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists (WCIT) to start, by offering office space to help them get going.
I admire Tim Berners Lee for having not only not taken any money himself out of the web per se – he made it available for all, but persuaded his organisation not to take any royalties…But unfortunately, that goodness is countered by the other side, which is the big tech companies in the States now more or less ruling the world…
Regarding his legacy, Jim looks back on a run of successful projects throughout his career that have helped people. But he voices concern over the ethics of the current direction technology is taking. He expresses the need for a more socially oriented approach.