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