Philip Kraven obituary

My father, Philip Kraven, who has died aged 92, was an information technology specialist who worked for two big oil companies – Britoil and BP – developing and managing their computer software. Philip had begun in oil exploration as a consultant geophysicist for Seismograph Service Ltd in the late 1950s. He soon switched over to working on IT during the early days of computers, initially using his knowledge of exploration techniques to develop data processing and programming systems that would support geophysical investigations. When he arrived at Britoil in 1978, he focused on providing IT systems to support the general management of the company, a specialism he took to BP in 1986, working there until retirement in 1991. He was born in London, the eldest of three brothers, to Golda (nee Rasch), a comptometer operator, and Sydney Krevenky, a diamond setter, who later changed the family name to Kraven. During the second world war Philip spent a number of happy years as an evacuee at a farm in Barley, Hertfordshire. Intelligent and curious, he later attended William Ellis grammar school in Highgate, north London, before doing his national service as a navigator in the RAF (1952-54) a