Clive Sinclair

Sir Clive Marles Sinclair (30 July 1940 – 16 September 2021) was an English entrepreneur and inventor, best known for being a pioneer in the computing industry and also as the founder of several companies that developed consumer electronics in the 1970s and early 1980s.

After spending several years as assistant editor of Instrument Practice, Sinclair founded Sinclair Radionics Ltd in 1961. He produced the world's first slimline electronic pocket calculator (the Sinclair Executive) in 1972. Sinclair then moved into the production of home computers in 1980 with Sinclair Research Ltd, producing the Sinclair ZX80 (the UK's first mass-market home computer for less than £100) and in the early 1980s, the ZX81, ZX Spectrum and the Sinclair QL. Sinclair Research is widely recognised for its importance in the early days of the British and European home computer industry, as well as helping to give rise to the British video game industry.

Sinclair also had several commercial failures, including the Sinclair Radionics Black Watch wristwatch, the Sinclair Vehicles C5 battery electric vehicle, and the Sinclair Research TV80 flatscreen CRT handheld television set. The failure of the C5, along with a weakened computer market, forced Sinclair to sell most of his companies by 1986. Through 2010, Sinclair concentrated on personal transport, including the A-bike, a folding bicycle for commuters which was small enough to fit in a handbag. He also developed the Sinclair X-1, a revised version of the C5 electric vehicle, which never made it to the market.

Sinclair was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 1983 Birthday Honours for his contributions to the personal computer industry in the UK.

Sinclair's father and grandfather were engineers; both had been apprentices at the shipbuilders Vickers. His grandfather George Sinclair was a naval architect who got the paravane, a mine sweeping device, to work. George Sinclair's son, George William "Bill" Sinclair, wanted to take religious orders or become a journalist. His father suggested he train as an engineer first; Bill became a mechanical engineer and remained in the field. At the outbreak of World War II in 1939, he was running his own machine tools business in London, and later worked for the Ministry of Supply.

Clive Sinclair was born to George Sinclair and Thora Edith Ella Marles on 30 July 1940, in Ealing, Middlesex. He and his mother left London for safety to stay with an aunt in Devon, where they eventually moved to Teignmouth. A telegram arrived shortly afterwards, bringing the news that their home in Ealing had been bombed. Sinclair's father found a house in Bracknell in Berkshire. His brother Iain was born in 1943 and his sister Fiona in 1947.

Sinclair attended Boxgrove Preparatory School, excelling in mathematics. Sinclair had little interest in sports and found himself out of place at school. By the time he was ten, his father had financial problems. He had branched out from machine tools and planned to import miniature tractors from the U.S.; he had to give up the business. Because of his father's problems, Sinclair had to move school several times. After a time at Reading School, Sinclair took his O-levels at Highgate School in London in 1955, and his A-levels and S-levels in physics, pure maths, and applied maths at St. George's College, Weybridge.

During his early years, Sinclair earned money mowing lawns and washing up in a café, earning 6d (2½p) more than the permanent staff. Later he went for holiday jobs at electronic companies. At Solartron he inquired about the possibility of electrically propelled personal vehicles. Sinclair applied for a holiday job at Mullard and took one of his circuit designs; he was rejected for precociousness. While still at school he wrote his first article for Practical Wireless.