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An Appreciation of Dina St Johnston (1930 ... - Computer Journal

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Page 4 <strong>of</strong> 10 SIMON LAVINGTON<br />

computers under the GEC label, for applications such as<br />

telecommunications, control and defence.<br />

The list in the Appendix hints at the early dominance <strong>of</strong><br />

Elliott computers for process control applications in the UK,<br />

followed from 1970 onwards by a variety <strong>of</strong> other hardware<br />

platforms which included the Ferranti Argus and many<br />

examples from the American manufacturer Digital Equipment<br />

Corporation (DEC). Vaughan then took the unusual step <strong>of</strong><br />

designing and building its own computer, the 4M, as described<br />

below in Section 4. In the broadening market <strong>of</strong> process<br />

control applications, Vaughan was one <strong>of</strong> the first companies<br />

to design s<strong>of</strong>tware for mechanical handling and warehousing<br />

systems, beginning in about 1970—see list <strong>of</strong> customers in<br />

the Appendix—and latterly (as in the Halfords case) using<br />

Automated Guided Vehicles.<br />

By 1963, VPS had moved to larger premises at Riverside<br />

House, Ware, and by 1966 VPS was employing 30 people,<br />

most <strong>of</strong> whom were programmers. A few <strong>of</strong> these programmers<br />

were young local people who were trained in-house,<br />

there being very few formal college programming courses in<br />

the UK at that time. Colleagues have remarked that <strong>Dina</strong><br />

was exceptional in employing staff with many different backgrounds<br />

and abilities. ‘There were outstanding successes and<br />

also some outstanding failures. She was ahead <strong>of</strong> her time in<br />

believing that computing could be for everyone—even in the<br />

world <strong>of</strong> intricate machine code and assembly programming’.<br />

Much <strong>of</strong> the construction <strong>of</strong> the VPS <strong>of</strong>fices at Riverside<br />

House was undertaken by <strong>Dina</strong>’s husband <strong>An</strong>drew <strong>St</strong> <strong>Johnston</strong>,<br />

with the staff being roped in to move the heavy straw<br />

wall panels up to the second floor. Later a computer room<br />

was constructed in the same material to house a second-hand<br />

Elliott 803 acquired from Borehamwood. Many years later,<br />

after its retirement to a barn at the <strong>St</strong> <strong>Johnston</strong>’s house at<br />

Hedgegrove Farm, <strong>An</strong>drew restored the 803 to working condition<br />

and installed it in the <strong>Computer</strong> Museum at Bletchley<br />

Park in 1994. <strong>An</strong>drew left Elliott-Automation in March 1968<br />

to join VPS, latterly becoming the Managing Director.<br />

Rachel Monk, the wife <strong>of</strong> Ge<strong>of</strong>frey Monk, an ex-<br />

Borehamwood engineer who joined Vaughan in 1970, was<br />

an architect. Having been made redundant in the late 1970s,<br />

Rachel became involved with Vaughan and has the following<br />

memories.<br />

‘As the company expanded and started building its own<br />

hardware (see below) to supplement the s<strong>of</strong>tware, we<br />

outgrew Riverside House and in October 1978 bought a<br />

nearly derelict Maltings (in Hoe Lane, Ware, Hertfordshire)<br />

which would provide the space required. This<br />

was a big undertaking for Vaughan, as until this time premises<br />

had been rented, and capital was required both for<br />

the original purchase and the refurbishment. I was not<br />

involved in the first phase <strong>of</strong> the rebuilding, but was<br />

entrusted with all subsequent work (ending in 1983<br />

with the equipping <strong>of</strong> a new Conference Room in The<br />

THE COMPUTER JOURNAL, 2008<br />

Maltings tower). The sensitive conversion <strong>of</strong> The Maltings<br />

drew praise from visitors when we moved in<br />

during the summer <strong>of</strong> 1979. I worked on both the electronic<br />

hardware and on the refurbishment <strong>of</strong> the building<br />

in a freelance capacity for several years before joining<br />

Vaughan in a permanent position in charge <strong>of</strong> the<br />

Design Office, a progression from the work I had done<br />

initially. I also became responsible for all the documentation<br />

which accompanied every system delivered’.<br />

The Maltings proved to have adequate capacity until<br />

mid-1992, when Vaughan found it necessary to rent additional<br />

space in the Mead Business Centre, Mead Lane, Hertford. The<br />

need for additional space then became less acute. In 1995, with<br />

a shrinking order book and consequential staff redundancies,<br />

the Mead Lane premises were relinquished. At that time<br />

British Rail were Vaughan’s principal customer, as discussed<br />

in Section 4 below, and contracts were put on hold in the<br />

mid-1990s whilst Railtrack was being restructured. By 1997,<br />

the company had expanded again and new units were leased<br />

in Merchant Drive, Hertford.<br />

There appears to be no surviving VPS records giving definitive<br />

personnel lists but the total number <strong>of</strong> employees at<br />

certain points, as deduced from other source documents, was<br />

as follows: in November 1984: 35 employees; in July 1989:<br />

55 employees; in July 1992: 99 employees (<strong>of</strong> whom 68<br />

were at The Maltings, Ware and 31 at Mead Lane, Hertford);<br />

in August 1998: 97 employees. This places Vaughan amongst<br />

the smaller rank <strong>of</strong> s<strong>of</strong>tware houses. The fact that it survived<br />

until 1996 as an independent company is largely due to its<br />

growing expertise in the specialist field <strong>of</strong> rail and airport signalling,<br />

control and display systems, as discussed later.<br />

In about 1975 the company name was changed to Vaughan<br />

Systems and Programming, to reflect Vaughan’s growing<br />

hardware-related activities. In November 1977 a limited<br />

company, Vaughan Systems and Programming Ltd. (simplified<br />

to Vaughan Systems Ltd. in 1989) was formed. The objectives<br />

were stated to be:: ‘To carry on business as designers, specifiers,<br />

advisors on, experts in, manufacturers and suppliers <strong>of</strong> computer<br />

based systems s<strong>of</strong>tware and hardware in the field <strong>of</strong> Control<br />

and Automation for industry, communications, government and<br />

defence, ...’ (there followed nine more general application<br />

areas but, significantly, Control and Automation was the key<br />

phrase). The share capital was £5000. There were just two<br />

Directors, Aldrina Nia <strong>St</strong> <strong>Johnston</strong> and <strong>An</strong>drew <strong>St</strong> <strong>Johnston</strong>.<br />

A look at the lists given in the Appendix confirms the great<br />

variety <strong>of</strong> machines and operating systems with which<br />

Vaughan had to deal. Gerald Everitt remembers that<br />

‘we became very adept at establishing with clients<br />

genuine confidence in our expertise without their realizing<br />

that much was new to us. It was Vaughan’s policy<br />

to have fixed price contracts negotiated against a fixed<br />

specification even, at times, when a customer was not<br />

keen and would have preferred to contract for staff to<br />

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