Clive Sinclair, British computing pioneer, dies aged 81

Sinclair came to prominence in 1973 with the world’s first ‘slimline’ pocket calculator, before launching the iconic ZX Spectrum about a decade later

He will also be remembered for the Sinclair C5, an ill-fated electric tricycle once heralded as the future of eco-friendly transport

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Clive Sinclair, founder of Sinclair Radionics, displays his company’s ‘Microvision’ portable television in New York in 1977. Photo: AP

Published: 6:05pm, 17 Sep 2021Updated: 6:30pm, 17 Sep 2021

Clive Sinclair, the inventor and entrepreneur who arguably did more than anyone else to inspire a whole generation of children in Britain and beyond into a lifelong passion for computers and gaming, has died. He was 81.

Sinclair, who rose to prominence in the early 1980s with a series of affordable home computers that offered millions their first glimpse into the world of coding as well as the adrenaline rush of playing games on screens, died on Thursday morning after a long battle with cancer.

Though ailing, his daughter Belinda Sinclair said, he was still working on inventions up until last week.

Clive Sinclair pictured at the 2006 launch of a new invention, the A-bike, at the Design Museum in London. Photo: AFP

“He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure, it was his passion,” she told the BBC.

Born in 1940 in the plush southwest London suburb of Richmond, Sinclair left school at the age of 17 and became a technical journalist before deciding he – and the world – would be better off if he used his brainpower to come up with inventions himself.