The Man from Alexandria

John Chapman was born in Birmingham, England in 1935 and grew up mainly in Gloucestershire. He attended Southampton University and gained an honours degree in mathematics with aeronautics; but was seduced by the emerging computer technology. After a spell in Northern Ireland he moved to Toronto where he worked for Ferranti-Packard with some of the brightest brains of the period and developed techniques for digitising oil-well logs to release fifty year old data to computer technology. After spells in Australia, Scotland and Sweden he returned to England in 1970 to work for ICL, having married Ann in 1966 and having three children. Here he continued to travel the world advising many institutions on how best to exploit the new technologies before retiring in 1992. He became a school inspector, served for nearly fifty years as a local councillor and became deeply immersed in local and military history being either the author or co-author of many books. He was also a leader in helping others, being the chairman of his local voluntary society for many years.