Ian McNaught-Davis

Ian McNaught-Davis (30 August 1929 – 10 February 2014) was a British television presenter mainly known for presenting the BBC TV series The Computer Programme, Making the Most of the Micro and Micro Live in the 1980s. He was also a well-known mountaineer and alpinist. He was managing director of the British subsidiary of Comshare Inc.

The son of Stanley McNaught-Davis, an ex RAF pilot, he was educated at Rothwell Grammar School in Lofthouse, West Yorkshire (originally built in Rothwell, West Yorkshire), followed by national service in the RAF where his poor eyesight thwarted his ambitions to become a pilot. He achieved a first in Mathematics at the University of Manchester, where he also became an active mountaineer.

After university he had a variety of jobs including : digging ice tunnels for glaciologists on Monte Rosa in Switzerland; fixing roofs and teaching. Eventually he settled as a geophysicist for British Petroleum (BP), specialising in Africa.

Computing

In the 1970s he switched careers to information technology, and joined Comshare Inc, where he remained until retirement in 1995. Comshare specialised in software development and resale of redundant operational time on mainframe computer systems. He rose to become chief executive of the European division and managing director of the British subsidiary.

Media

He presented the BBC TV series The Computer Programme, 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.

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 range in Baltistan.

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. He also took part in a climb of the Eiffel Tower, which was televised on the ABC network's Wide World of Sports.

Honours

McNaught-Davis was the first non-Swiss holder of the post president of the UIAA (International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation) between the years of 1995 and 2004

He became honorary librarian of the Climbers' Club in 1961.

In 2012 he was a patron of the British Mountaineering Council.

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.