Jeff

Update from Robin Whittle 8th February 2024:

Jeffrey Whittle AO passed away peacefully surrounded by his family, in Melbourne, on 5th February 2024.

Please see the main page of this site regarding his funeral.

Here is a new page based on my understanding of at least some of Jeff's 59 year computer programming career:

../jw-programming/

A fuller account of his work, and of Whittle Consulting, is at:

https://whittleconsulting.com.au/livebook/#/overview

The material below was written by Jeff in 2007.

Robin rw@firstpr.com.au

My Life as I Remember it

Caveat: Our memory can be very fickle, and there is now evidence that, every time we recall something, we delete it and re-record it together with any mistakes and embellishments. Thereafter we "remember" the re-recorded version as fact. In what follows I have done my best to be factual and I have written what I "remember", but I would be amazed if there were no errors.

Milestones - Events, work and locations

I was born on March 24th 1930 in my parents' home, "The Poplars". This was a two storey semi-detached house in Ladies Lane, Aspull, Lancashire, a few houses north of the boundary between Aspull and Hindley. My parents were Herbert Henry Whittle and Dorothy Wanda Whittle (née Taylor). I was told that I weighed 10 pounds (4.5Kg).

My parents built a single story two-bedroomed house which they called "Selwyn" after the house that my father was in at boarding school, and we moved there while I was still a toddler. "Selwyn" was also in Ladies Lane but about 25 yards south of the Aspull/Hindley boundary, so we didn't move far.

In 1933, at the age of three, I flew for the first time on a joy flight with Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus. It is probably my earliest memory.

I initially went to school in Chapel Hill and walked there with one of the teachers who lived in Ladies Lane.

After about a year I was moved to Saint Peters primary school near the central cross-roads in Hindley.

In 1939 I passed an exam and moved to the Hindley and Abram Grammar School south east of Hindley.

In 1947 I started the Honours Physics course at Manchester University and graduated with second class honours in 1950.

In early 1951 I started my National Service basic training at Honiton on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon.

Later in 1951 I did officer training at Eaton Hall near Chester in Cheshire and was granted a Commission in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (R.E.M.E.).

I completed my National Service in early 1953 and started work in the Health Physics department at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell in Berkshire.

Early in 1954 I met Ruth Kendrick, who worked in Administration at A.E.R.E., and we were married on October 9th of the same year. We set up home in Susan Crescent, Wantage, about seven miles from Harwell, and, while there, brought our first four children (all boys) into the world.

In about 1955 I changed jobs to work for the Medical Research Council's Radiobiological Unit just outside the Atomic Energy Research Establishment's security fence.

In late 1961 Ruth, the children and l moved to Melbourne in Australia and in February 1962 our daughter was born. We lived initially in Gordon Street, Newport in Melbourne's west, but moved after six months to Grace Street, Mont Albert in the eastern suburbs.

From 1962 to 1967 I worked at the Ministry of Supply Defence Standards Laboratory at Maribyrnong in the west of Melbourne.

From 1967 to 1977 I worked in the Computer Centre at Monash University in south east Melbourne. During this time, in 1970, our fifth son was born.

From 1977 to 1979 I headed a team of programmers writing a hospital pathology system.

From 1979 to 1986 I worked for the Australian branch of Newmont Mining Corporation in their head office in central Melbourne.

In 1984, Ruth and I set up Whittle Programming Pty Ltd, with me doing the software development and Ruth doing the marketing. Before long, our fourth son David joined us as Business Manager and we took on programmers and office staff. We specialised in developing and selling optimization software for the mining industry. Initially we ran the business from home but, as the company grew, we moved into offices of increasing size in Balwyn East and then Box Hill, both suburbs of Melbourne.

Some time later our second son, Gerald, joined us to set up Whittle Consulting Pty Ltd with the aim of using some new mining optimization software that I had written but had not put on the market.

In 2000, Whittle Programming and Whittle Consulting were floated on the Stock Exchange under a holding company called Whittle Technology Ltd. Whittle Technology was not successful as a public company and, by 2002, Whittle Programming had been sold to a Canadian Mining Software company called Gemcom, and Whittle Consulting was back in private hands. David moved to Vancouver with his family and, among other things, ran Whittle Programming for Gemcom. The listed company Whittle Technology Ltd changed its name and now plans to breed barramundi!

Although, in theory, retired, I continue to develop the software used by Whittle Consulting on a part-time basis.

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