The first female business computer programmer, Mary Clare Coombs, has died at the age of 93 following complications with Covid-19.
The programmer was born on 4 February 1929 and started writing programs for the world’s first business computer at Lyons & Co in 1952. By joining the Lyons Electronic Office (LEO), she became the only woman working with three male programmers and in a class of 12 on an introductory computer appreciation course. She started developing programs for internal company use and worked on an unreliable valve computer that had just 2 KB of computer storage.
Coombs also worked as a programmer for companies such as Ford Motor Company, Met Office, and the Army. She became a supervisor and worked to locate and repair coding errors in the programs created by others. She is recognised as the first female commercial programmer.
Due to family commitments, she started to work part-time editing computer manuals and ran a computer programming course for severely disabled residents at the Princess Marina Centre, Seer Green. She ended her work with the LEO team in 1969. In 1973, she became a postgraduate teacher before retiring in 1985 and working as a buyer in the water treatment industry.
Coombs is survived by her three children and grandchildren.
