Graham Wallace was a volunteer at The National Museum of Computing for more than ten years – so long that no one can be certain exactly when he arrived. In that time, he played invaluable roles in helping Tony Sale restore George the Robot, explaining the workings and purpose of Colossus to visitors and acting as chief custodian of the Power-Samas punched card equipment.

On the afternoon of the 18th of May 2019 our Elliott 803 suffered a major power supply failure which resulted in the machine turning itself off with a bit of a “pop”. The source of the “pop” was unclear, but luckily Peter Onion (our 803 engineer) was on hand at the time and began his investigation.

At Jean Valentine’s funeral service last week, a poem in code and in deciphered text was included in the order of service. It was written by her grandson Andy Valentine, who has kindly given us permission to reproduce it here.