India-born inventor of the first ATM , dead

The India-born inventor of the first ATM cash machine has died, aged 84, after a short illness.

John Shepherd-Barron came up with the concept of a self-service cash dispenser in 1965 while lying in a bath after getting to his bank too late to withdraw money.

The businessman, who worked for the printing firm De La Rue Instruments at the time, said he was inspired by chocolate vending machines and put the idea to the head of Barclays Bank “over a pink gin”.

The first automated teller machine (ATM) was installed at a branch in Enfield, London, in 1967, when Reg Varney, one of the stars of the television show On the Buses, became the first person to withdraw cash.

It was operated by inserting a special cheque that was matched against a PIN number, and paved the way for machines using plastic cards.

Shepherd-Barron, from Portmahomack, Easter Ross, died in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, on Saturday.

He did not patent his system and did not make any money from his invention, but was made an OBE in 2005 for his services to banking. He was also presented with a lifetime achievement award by the ATM Industry Association. Describing his “eureka” moment, he once said: “I remember back in 1965 that I would always take money out of my bank on a Saturday morning. However, one Saturday I was one minute late at my bank and it was closed.

“That night I started thinking that there must be a better way to get cash when I wanted it. I thought of the chocolate vending machine, where money was put in a slot and a bar dispatched. Surely money could be dispensed in the same way.

“By chance, in 1965, I bumped into the chief general manager of Barclays Bank who was about to have lunch. I said, over a pink gin, ‘Give me 90 seconds’. I told him I had an idea that if you put your standard Barclays cheque through a slot in the side of the bank, it will deliver standard amounts of money round the clock.”

Barron was born in India to Scottish parents in 1925.