Leonard Landon Goodman was born in Manchester in 1917. He studied at Repton School, Derbyshire and during the Second World War served with the Royal Signals Regiment. After the war he attended the Royal Technical College, Salford from 1944 to 1947 and then went on to gain a 1st Class Honours degree in Engineering from the University of London. He worked for Ferranti Ltd before going to work for the Electricity Council. He became an authority on automation in the workplace, publishing several books on the subject.