John Adrian Shepherd-Barron


1925 - 2010

Inventor of the first practical 'cash machine'. Born into a Scottish family in India, Shepherd-Barron was educated at the University of Edinburgh. He went on to work for De La Rue Instruments in the 1960s, becoming its Managing Director. He came up with the concept of a self-service machine which would dispense paper currency with 24/7 availability. This was the Automated Teller Machine (ATM) and the first machine was installed outside a north London branch of Barclay's Bank in 1967, issuing money when a special radioactively-encoded cheque was inserted into the machine. Another Scot, James Goodfellow (b.1937), came up with an alternative design about the same time operated by a card and Personal Identification Number (PIN).

Shepherd-Barron spent his retirement in Tain (Highland) and was awarded an OBE in the New Year's Honours list for 2005.


Use the tabs on the right of this page to see other parts of this entry arrow

If you have found this information useful please consider making
a donation to help maintain and improve this resource. More info...

By using our site you agree to accept cookies, which help us serve you better