John Fairclough

Sir John Whitaker Fairclough, who lived from 23 August 1930 to 5 June 2003, was a British computer designer and later a government policy advisor. He was educated at Thirsk Grammar School and studied electrical engineering at Manchester University before national service with the RAF. In 1954 he joined the Ferranti computer department and in 1957 he moved to IBM, including working in Raleigh, North Carolina, and in 1974 he returned to the UK to be Managing Director of IBM Hursley near Winchester. From 1986 to 1990 he was Chief Scientific Adviser to the British government led by Margaret Thatcher. He left the Cabinet Office and was knighted in 1990, joined the board of NM Rothschild and Sons that year as chairman of its venture capital section, and was President of the British Computer Society in 1997 to 1998.