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Ian McNaught-Davis (30 August 1929 – 10 February 2014) was a British television presenter best known for presenting the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
television series ''
The Computer Programme ''The Computer Programme'' is a TV series, produced by Paul Kriwaczek, originally broadcast by the BBC (on BBC 2) in 1982. The idea behind the series was to introduce people to computers and show them what they were capable of. The BBC wanted ...
'', '' Making the Most of the Micro'' and '' Micro Live'' in the 1980s. He was also a mountaineer and alpinist. He was managing director of the British subsidiary of
Comshare Geac Computer Corporation, Ltd ( and ) was a producer of enterprise resource planning, performance management, and industry specific software based in Markham, Ontario. It was acquired by Golden Gate Capital's Infor unit in March 2006 for US$1 bi ...
Inc.


Early life and career

The son of Stanley McNaught-Davis, an ex RAF pilot, he was educated at Rothwell Grammar School in
Lofthouse, West Yorkshire Lofthouse is a village between the cities of Wakefield and Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. The village falls within the Ardsley and Robin Hood ward of the City of Leeds Council. It is in the City of Leeds metropolitan borough but with a Wakef ...
(originally built in
Rothwell, West Yorkshire Rothwell is a town in the south-east of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is situated between Leeds and Wakefield. It is in the Rothwell (ward), Rothwell ward of Leeds City Council and Elmet and Rothwell (U ...
), followed by
national service National service is the system of voluntary government service, usually military service. Conscription is mandatory national service. The term ''national service'' comes from the United Kingdom's National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. The l ...
in the
RAF The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
where his poor eyesight thwarted his ambitions to become a pilot. He achieved a first in
Mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
at the
University of Manchester , mottoeng = Knowledge, Wisdom, Humanity , established = 2004 – University of Manchester Predecessor institutions: 1956 – UMIST (as university college; university 1994) 1904 – Victoria University of Manchester 1880 – Victoria Univer ...
, where he also became an active mountaineer. After university he had a variety of jobs including digging ice tunnels for glaciologists on
Monte Rosa : , other_name = Monte Rosa massif , translation = Mount Rose , photo = Dufourspitze (Monte Rosa) and Monte Rosa Glacier as seen from Gornergrat, Wallis, Switzerland, 2012 August.jpg , photo_caption = Central Mon ...
in
Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...
; fixing roofs and teaching. Eventually he settled as a
geophysicist Geophysics () is a subject of natural science concerned with the physical processes and physical properties of the Earth and its surrounding space environment, and the use of quantitative methods for their analysis. The term ''geophysics'' som ...
for British Petroleum (BP), specialising in Africa.


Mountaineering

McNaught-Davis was a keen climber, hill walker and hiker. In 1956 he was one of the first to climb the "unclimbable" Muztagh Tower in the
Karakoram The Karakoram is a mountain range in Kashmir region spanning the borders of Pakistan, China, and India, with the northwest extremity of the range extending to Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Most of the Karakoram mountain range falls under the ...
range in
Baltistan Baltistan ( ur, ; bft, སྦལ་ཏི་སྟཱན, script=Tibt), also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet ( bft, སྦལ་ཏི་ཡུལ་།, script=Tibt), is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilg ...
. He became honorary librarian of the
Climbers' Club The Climbers' Club is the senior rock-climbing club in England and Wales (outside the Lake District). The club was founded in 1898. The CC one of the largest publishers of climbing guidebooks in many of the main climbing areas of England and Wal ...
in 1961. In the 1960s, he was a climbing partner of Joe Brown both in the UK and in the greater ranges. He took part with Brown in the televised climb of the
Old Man of Hoy The Old Man of Hoy is a sea stack on Hoy, part of the Orkney archipelago off the north coast of Scotland. Formed from Old Red Sandstone, it is one of the tallest stacks in the United Kingdom. The Old Man is popular with climbers, and was first c ...
. He also took part in a climb of the
Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "'' ...
, which was televised on the
ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Television ...
network's '' Wide World of Sports''. McNaught-Davis made his television debut in 1965 as one of the presenters of a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
TV mountaineering programme ''Men Against the Matterhorn'', with
David Dimbleby David Dimbleby (born 28 October 1938) is an English journalist and former presenter of current affairs and political programmes, best known for having presented the BBC topical debate programme ''Question Time''. He is the son of broadcaster R ...
and
Christopher Brasher Christopher William Brasher CBE (21 August 1928 – 28 February 2003) was a British track and field athlete, sports journalist and co-founder of the London Marathon. Early life and education Born in Georgetown, British Guiana, Brasher went t ...
.


Computing and TV presentation

In the 1970s, he changed career becoming active in
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology system (I ...
, and joined
Comshare Geac Computer Corporation, Ltd ( and ) was a producer of enterprise resource planning, performance management, and industry specific software based in Markham, Ontario. It was acquired by Golden Gate Capital's Infor unit in March 2006 for US$1 bi ...
Inc, where he remained until retirement in 1995. Comshare specialised in software development and resale of redundant operational time on
mainframe computer A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterpris ...
systems. He rose to become chief executive of the European division and managing director of the British subsidiary. Between 1975 and 1978, he presented the BBC series ''It's Patently Obvious'', a game show in which two panels of celebrities tried to guess the purpose of unfamiliar inventions. He presented another BBC series ''
The Computer Programme ''The Computer Programme'' is a TV series, produced by Paul Kriwaczek, originally broadcast by the BBC (on BBC 2) in 1982. The idea behind the series was to introduce people to computers and show them what they were capable of. The BBC wanted ...
'', '' Making the Most of the Micro'' and '' Micro Live'' in the 1980s. In 2008 he was a speaker (along with Dave Allen and George Auckland) at an event entitled ''The BBC Micro and its legacy'' hosted by the
Computer Conservation Society The Computer Conservation Society (CCS) is a British organisation, founded in 1989. It is under the joint umbrella of the British Computer Society (BCS), the London Science Museum and the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. Overview The ...
.


Honours

McNaught-Davis was the first non-Swiss holder of the post president of the
UIAA The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, commonly known by its French name Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme (UIAA, lit. ''International Union of Alpine Clubs''), was founded in August 1932 in Chamonix, Franc ...
(''International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation'') between the years of 1995 and 2004. In 2012 he was a patron of the
British Mountaineering Council The British Mountaineering Council (BMC) is the national representative body for England and Wales that exists to protect the freedoms and promote the interests of climbers, hill walkers and mountaineers, including ski-mountaineers. The BMC ...
.


Private life

He married twice, having two sons, John and Simon, from his first marriage, and a daughter, Elvira Hurrell, from his second marriage to Loreto Herman.


References

*''The Alpine Journal'', Vol. 66, No. 303, 1961. pp. 250–260, ''1960 Greenland Expedition'', John A Jackson, A. Blackshaw and I. McNaught-Davis. *'' Staunings Alps Expedition Guide'', Gaston's Alpine Books - West Col Productions, 1972.


External links

*
1980s BBC photo
of McNaught-Davis presenting the
BBC Micro The British Broadcasting Corporation Microcomputer System, or BBC Micro, is a series of microcomputers and associated peripherals designed and built by Acorn Computers in the 1980s for the BBC Computer Literacy Project. Designed with an emphas ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:McNaught-Davis, Ian 1929 births 2014 deaths British television presenters English mountain climbers