My husband, James Watson, who has died aged 76, was a computer specialist in the civil service. His career spanned the progression from room-sized mainframe computers through to laptops and the internet.
Early in his career he worked on the LEO (the first business computer) and extensively on ICL 1900s – such that he could later inform a specialist at the National Museum of Computing in Bletchley why their explanation of how one operated was not exactly correct. He looked back fondly on helping to bring in decimalisation in 1971.
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, Jim was the son of George, a Scot, who served as a police officer, and his wife, Margaret (nee Jameson), a midwife. He went to Rutherford grammar school in Newcastle before joining the civil service after A-levels at the age of 18, beginning in 1965 at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, where he worked on pension arrangements with Ireland.
In 1970 he was posted to the Ministry of Transport in Harmondsworth on the edge of London, where he learned to program the LEO machine and worked on payroll systems, as well as the introduction of decimalisation. In 1972 he moved with the department to Hastings, East Sussex, and two years later back to Newcastle, until late 1978, when he moved down to Reading, in Berkshire, where he stayed for the rest of his career.
Initially Jim worked there on computerisation of the entirely manual and paper-based systems used for supplementary benefits (now income support), later doing similar work on unemployment benefits. From 1990 until his retirement in 2007 he worked for the Intervention Board for Agricultural Produce (from 2001 the Rural Payments Agency), where he was IT project manager for systems delivering the European Union’s common agricultural policy payments to farmers and traders in England.
Jim lived in the south of England for half a century but never lost his accent. A thoroughly nice guy, forthright and honest, he had many friends from all walks of life.
He loved all music and had a keen interest in sport, especially cycling and rugby league (he supported St Helens). For international matches his Scottish heritage came to the fore.
Jim and I lived together from 1985 onwards and were married in 2001. I survive him, as does our son, Alec, his daughter, Samantha, from his first marriage, to Linzi, which ended in divorce, his grandsons Dylan and Taylor, and his sister, Marjorie, and brother, Angus.
