Bill Broderick obituary

My father, Bill Broderick, who has died aged 80 of Covid-19, was an educationist ahead of his time in the field of computing. His vision and enthusiasm led to the first computer being installed in a British secondary school, the Royal Liberty school in Romford, Essex, where he was a maths teacher, in 1965. In a broadcast by the BBC programme Tomorrow's World from the school, Bill said: "Computers are as radical and important a keystone to our standard of living and industrial wellbeing as was the steam engine." Born in Farnborough, Kent, Bill was the only son of Ralph Broderick, an engineer, and Ida (nee Massey). He was educated at Lord Wandsworth college in Long Sutton, Hampshire, then went to Hull University to study mathematics.