Sir Clive Sinclair, 1940-2021
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Sir Clive Sinclair, 1940-2021
It’s an incredibly sad day for the British computing industry.
We’re always going to be very grateful to Sir Clive for being one of the founding fathers of the UK home computing boom that helped so many of us at Raspberry Pi get hooked on programming as kids.
He was someone from whom the business behind Raspberry Pi has drawn great inspiration. He’ll be very sadly missed.
28 comments
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Stephen Cooper
17th September 2021, 9:53 am
Was sad to hear about Sir Clive Sinclair passing away – without access to the products he bought to market I doubt I’d have a career in IT. With my limited academic qualifications I owe him a big thank you for all he helped me to achieve, RIP.
Anders
17th September 2021, 9:57 am
Without exaggeration, Sinclair changed my life. My life was going in the wrong direction. Then there was the moment I first saw the k prompt, I can still remember that feeling of needing to know more, sparked at that moment and has carried me ever since.
I don’t know what would have happened if I had not had that career direction defined at that moment but I don’t think it would have been good.
Thanks Clive, your stuff was worth the wait, and worth its weight in diamonds.
Keith
17th September 2021, 9:58 am
Sad news today.
It brings back memories to me of the ZX81 and its wobbly Ram pack :) and Spectrum computers and many happy hours spent playing with them as a kid.
I hope his contribution to our digital age is remembered.
R.I.P. Sir Clive and thanks for everything you gave us.
Steve Williams
17th September 2021, 10:11 am
Not just computers. I made his little Micromatic radio in the early 70’s. Also used his Sinclair Cambridge calculator a lot. Sadly never got into ZX80 nor ZX81, as I was programming big toys (mainframes) by then.
Terry Coles
17th September 2021, 12:25 pm
I was still at school when I bought the Micro-6 :-) It was one of the devices that enthused me to have a Royal Navy career in radio. Later I had the ZX81 (I couldn’t afford the ZX80 at the time) and my wife had a Spectrum, so when I went for my first civilian jobs in the early 80s, I was able to step into a post using a VAX without too much training.
He was a true pioneer!
Al Stevens
17th September 2021, 10:31 am
RIP Sir Clive – my whole journey in computing started on a ZX81. I later traded up to a BBC Master 128, another of the spiritual predecessors of today’s amazing RPi. But who knows where we’d be without Clive’s affordable, accessible machines kickstarting the home computing and intro coding revolution?
Like many old brit coders, I owe this man a huge debt, the ZX81 was my introduction to computers, and led to a life long career as a game programmer. His influence is immense, the successes were clear, but even the misses made people think.
Thanks Uncle Clive, RIP.
John Henderson
17th September 2021, 12:47 pm
It was a bright cold spring day in 1984, and a boring R.E. lesson was finally brought to an end by the lunchtime bell. I turned to the boy sitting next to me; “So, what are you doing for lunch?”.
“I’m going to the computer club” he replied. There was a pause, while I tried to process what he had just said. “A computer club? What computer club?”
“It’s the school computer club. We get together in Mr. Danatt’s lab at lunchtime once every week.”
“So… can I come?”
“Yeah, sure. I’ll be there in about 10 or 15 minutes.”
I have never eaten two sandwiches and a packet of crisps as fast as I did on that day. There was no corridor to Mr Danatt’s lab, and we weren’t allowed to walk through Mrs. Pearson’s lab to get there, so that left the rickety metal stairs of the external fire escape. Gingerly climbing up the flights of steps, buffeted about by a chilly spring wind, I finally reached the top and banged on the door.
I was let in to a lab where Mr. Danatt and a few boys stood around a 14-inch television, which was connected to a small black slab of plastic with a grey rubber keyboard. It felt like the future had just arrived.
Just 10 years earlier, the notion that a group of schoolboys would have access to an entire computer and the freedom to write their own programs would have been the plot of an improbable science-fiction story. And yet there we were. Uncle Clive gave us that little machine, and said “There you go boys. See what you can do with that.”
Thanks Clive. We’re gonna miss you.
Anders
17th September 2021, 1:49 pm
John Henderson,
My first encounter with the ZX was a teacher bringing his personal one to school and letting me loose on it at lunchtime. As basic and primitive as it was, I thought it was sci-fi come true. Hard for young people to understand now, but tech was crude back then, and these little boxes were like magic.
John Henderson
17th September 2021, 4:18 pm
It was great when you had a teacher who was a little bit cool and up-to-date with the latest technology.
Yes, it is hard for young people to understand, because they’ve never known a time without digital technology — or as we called it, “the 1970s”. ;-)
What a great story, and one that is probably familiar to so many who were around at that time. 1984 was about the time I got my first computer, a Spectrum+ 48k, and it sparked my life-long love of coding. Computing & technology is now so accessible it’s hard to get across to younger people just how incredible these computers were (and still are) and the excitement we felt at typing in 10 PRINT “HELLO WORLD”; 20 GOTO 10 and seeing it work
John Henderson
17th September 2021, 4:26 pm
Thank you for the kind words, Ben. Yes, I remember that excitement well. This was a machine that *did exactly what you told it to* in the blink of an eye. For a twelve-year-old, that was mind-blowing.
jardino
17th September 2021, 12:54 pm
I never had a ZX80/81, nor a Spectrum – my first Sinclair was a QL.
I was a mainframe computer consultant when IBM PCs
started to appear on clients’ desks. They didn’t know how to use them and, to my shame, nor did I. I tried to persuade my boss to buy one for the office, for learning purposes, but he refused because of the expense (about £4000 at the time).
I personally couldn’t afford that money, but I bought a QL instead, which had about 90% of the functionality of a PC for a tenth of the cost. I then proceeded to learn about spreadsheets and word processors so I could hold up my head in front of clients!
Robert Alderton
17th September 2021, 1:13 pm
Yes, a sad day. His forward thinking launched industries and many careers. Mine in tech started courtesy of his computers an a very patient staff at WH Smiths.
I just wonder where Sinclair would have gone if the UK had had a robust tech investment culture like Silicon Valley at the time.
RIP Sir Clive
Richard Jones
17th September 2021, 1:49 pm
Like so many, I got an 81 for Christmas. I spent many an RE or Careers lesson jotting down hex in the back of a workbook ready to type into a REM and USR it when I got home (once the TV was free). Clive certainly helped me on my way, sad he’s gone.
Edwin
17th September 2021, 2:39 pm
We still had ZX spectrums in the comp lab at primary school back in the 90s. I missed their heyday but the tech will always have a place in my heart. Thanks for everything Sir Clive, you’ll be missed.
Richard collins
17th September 2021, 4:04 pm
R.I.P Sir Clive. Your crystal may have stopped oscillating but your clock cycles with tick on forever.
Daniel Marjos
17th September 2021, 4:13 pm
My first steps in computing world were with the Timex Sinclair 1000, american version of the ZX81. I was 15 years, and lived where the world ends, Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina. My whole life started then to spin around computers. I always admired and loved Sir Clive Sinclair, and I guess I might also would call him Uncle Clive. I wouldn’t be what and where I am at my 51 years old, if it weren’t for Sir Clive. Godspeed, my loved friend.
David Ford
17th September 2021, 7:58 pm
Very sad to hear the passing of Sir Clive.
As a boy I was fortunate enough to meet him a few times. My father Don Ford had a an electronics and defence subcontractor business.
He made a number of the early Sinclair products – before the ZX came along.
The first production versions of the Sinclair Executive calculator and the Sinclair Cambridge rolled off the Downland Electronics production line back in the early 70’s. There was even a giant (well I thought so at the time) plywood version of the Executive (working!) that was about 5ft 6in high and was used widely to promote it.
I have pictures of me standing next to it.. and indeed one picture of me with a real executive calculator was used in a couple of adverts…
Something to do with demonstrating how easy it was to use – but neatly forgetting the awful battery life!
I remember Clive was quite serious, and a bit over enthusiastic when explaining his stuff, but he did take the time to talk to me ehen he visited, occasionally staying at oir house. Clive kindly sent me a few things to tinker with (a micro radio kit, a programmable Cambridge calculator, a black watch, and later an amplifier kit). All stuff he said he had “lying around”.
I guess that rubbed off on me, as I have had a great career in electronic engineering..
Thanks Dad, and thanks Clive.
RIP.
Andrew mackley
17th September 2021, 10:28 pm
As a 13 year old I was buying practical wireless magazine as an enthusiastic electronics and amateur radio buff. And then one edition had an advert for the zx81 in a centre spread and my world changed. All my paper round, birthday and Christmas money went into buying a zx81 and it changed my life. Although I qualified as a chemical engineer everything I have done in my career has been focused around computing, even getting up early on Raspberry Pi day to order the next generations zx81. Thankyou sir Clive, you were an inspiration to a generation of nerds that science and technology could be cool… and profitable. Rest in peace sir.
he will be most loved, thanks for your contribution to the world
Richard Jones
18th September 2021, 10:22 am
I fear Jonathan Margolis at The Daily Telegraph needs to do a little bit more research when writing his column..
“There were dozens of British computer brands by 1984; there are none today.” Even more ironic considering the recently introduced Pi 400 is pretty much a modern day equivalent of the Spectrum/BBC Micro/Commodore 64.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/09/17/sir-clive-sinclair-never-quite-became-british-steve-jobs/
Sir Clive Sinclair’s little ZX80 and ZX81 launched many of us in to the wonderful world of IT. His little computers may not have been the most powerful, or the most advanced in terms of capabilities, but they spawned countless businesses to support all the add-ons that were created. Even lots of software companies. Who can forget Artic computing and their very good Voice Chess. Holobyte and so on. I’m now a linux engineer – all because a friend bought himself a ZX80 and allowed me to have a go. I was hooked. RIP Sir Clive we owe you so…so much. The Pi is now serving the current generation with a small board that’s so powerful it makes my eyes water thinking about it. (I had a PC running dos and thought my 10MB hard card was the bees knees in storage). And history is repeating itself – how many companies have come into existence because of the Pi, how many books, videos , it’s endless and how many careers are being created. And who’d guess that the pi would be on board the ISS or even launched by British satellite manufacturer SSTL in to orbit – as is connected to a camera taking superb pictures of the Earth from Orbit.
All because of the vision of one man!
Neil Stewart
18th September 2021, 2:28 pm
Thank you Sir Clive Sinclair.
I bought my father a used ZX80 and started an avalanche of SBC addiction. It was impossible to imagine 40 years ago that we would have handheld computers more powerful than any mainframe without his inspiration.
Chris
18th September 2021, 6:48 pm
Like many here, the ZX81 was my first computer. I was only a few years old, but remember typing in listings. I was probably a bit too young to properly learn programming, but it definitely gave me a start and a lifelong love of computers and programming. I learnt most of what I know about Linux from a Pi, so I think the Pi is doing for the current generation what Clive managed in the 1980s. RIP Clive, your legacy lives on.
Tony klapisch
18th September 2021, 10:19 pm
I started with his MK14 kit, soldering it together in the mid 70’s, learning to program in hex and haven’t looked back since, rip
18th September 2021, 10:41 pm
I grew up with a zx81, ZX spectrum 16k and my brother had a 48k..also my younger brother had a C5 great fun to drive!…it’s sad to hear Clive has passed..an amazing legacy he’s left behind… thankyou Mr Sinclair for giving us kids from the 80’s such great memories, you will be missed..rip.
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