My father, Ralph Land, who has died aged 97, was, with his twin brother, Frank, part of the pioneering team that built and commercialised the Lyons Electronic Office (Leo), the world’s first business computer, in the 1950s. Ralph went on to develop markets for computers and photocopiers, first in the UK, then overseas.
From 1964 his innovation and determination secured business from government and state enterprises in the Soviet bloc, first for English Electric Leo Marconi, then ICL and finally Rank Xerox. The subsequent Soviet collapse in the 1990s opened new opportunities for Ralph as leader of the Russo-British and other trade councils, adviser to firms and government, and commentator on post-Soviet Russia and eastern Europe.
He remained active in public life well into his 80s, with roles, among others, as deputy chairman of the Westminster Foundation for Democracy and president of the London Rotary Club. My father held strong social democratic values, was a lifelong supporter of the Labour party and supported initiatives fostering peace, health, education and the arts. He was appointed OBE in 1985, advanced to CBE in 1995.
The twins were born in Berlin, into a comfortable middle-class Jewish family based on a manufacturing business founded by their grandfather Aron Landsberger. Their father, Louis, had underestimated the Nazi threat, but Kristallnacht brought the gravity of the situation home. With the business expropriated for just one mark, the family escaped to Britain in April 1939.
Louis was interned on the Isle of Man until after the blitz and the twins were temporarily fostered by the Gentles in Bedmond, Hertfordshire. In the meantime, their mother, Soscha (nee Weinberger), remained in London, where she earned an income making felt handbags and dolls dresses.
The twins attended Willesden county grammar school and from 1947 studied at the London School of Economics. After a spell as LSE research assistants, first Frank and then Ralph joined the leading catering company J Lyons & Co, from where they joined the team assembled to develop LEO.
Ralph married Jacqueline Bourdin in 1954. She had come from France in the late 1940s and after some au pairing found secretarial work at the Belgian airline Sabena. I was born in 1959 and Anthony, my brother, a year later.
As a result of our father’s work, our family lived in Paris and then Dusseldorf in the mid-70s before settling in Fulham, London, where our parents remained for the rest of their lives.
Jacqueline died in 2009, and his brother, Frank, earlier this year. Ralph is survived by Anthony and me, and a granddaughter.
