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Sunday 20:30-21:00 (rpt)
Radio 4's weekly obituaries programme | | | | Contact us | | | | | | | | | | This week | Friday 4th July 2008
(Rpt) Sunday 6th July |
| | | |  | | |  | Sir Charles Wheeler
British journalist and broadcaster who has died aged 85
For more than fifty years Sir Charles Wheeler was one of the most respected and distinctive reporters on British television and radio. He was there when the Berlin wall was built and when it fell, he brought us the twists and turns of the Watergate scandal in 1970s America, and he highlighted the persecution of the Kurds by Saddam Hussein in the early 1990s. Working on Panorama and Newsnight he made films on the death penalty, human rights and race relations in Britain.
Matthew Bannister talks to the Controller of Radio 4, Mark Damazer, the journalist David Sells and the radio producer David Prest.
Selwyn Charles Cornelius-Wheeler was born on March 15th 1923. He died July 4th 2008.
| | | David Caminer
Computer applications designer who has died aged 92
It may surprise you to learn that the world’s first business computer was developed in Britain by the Lyons catering company. David Caminer was the man who developed the programmes which ran on the computer. The machine became known as LEO which stood for Lyons Electronic Office and was sold to a number of other large companies.
David Caminer was born David Tresman, the son of a Jewish tailor in the East End of London. His father was killed in action during the first world war. When his mother re-married, he took his step-father’s surname. David chose not to go to university and instead became a management trainee at Lyons. During the war, David lost a leg after being wounded in the Battle of Mareth in the Tunisian desert. Returning to the catering company, he was running the systems research office in the late 1940s when the idea of using computers was suggested.
Matthew Bannister talks to David Caminer’s daughter Hilary and to Georgina Ferry who wrote a book on the LEO computer.
David Tresman Caminer was born June 26th 1915. He died June 19th 2008.
| | | Freddie Williams
Bookmaker who has died aged 65
“Fearless” Freddie Williams was a bookmaker who gained his nickname because he wouldn’t flinch, no matter how high the stakes. He was celebrated for his relationship with the owner JP McManus whose six figure bets during the Cheltenham National Hunt meeting are legendary.
Freddie Williams was a familiar figure at many race meetings and dog tracks and also owned a bottling plant and a restaurant in Glasgow. He was born in the coal mining town of Cumnock in Ayrshire. His father and grandfather had both worked down the pit, but a bout of polio as a child meant Freddie couldn’t follow in their footsteps.
Freddie liked race courses up and down the country, but the place that was closest to his heart was Cheltenham. For twenty years he was on the waiting list for a pitch at the meeting, but by the 1990s had only reached number forty. Then the rules changed and bookies’ pitches came up for auction and Freddie bought one.
BBC reporter Janieann McCracken went to Perth races on Thursday to meet some of Freddie’s fellow bookies and his daughter Julie. Matthew Bannister also talks to JP McManus.
Frederick Sidney Williams, was born October 28th 1942. He died June 21st 2008. | | | The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites |
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