Ben Cheese

Ben Cheese was the engineer who got Sinclair's Microdrives to work. See:

http://www.nvg.ntnu.no/sinclair/computers/peripherals/microdrive_sst.htm

"it seems only fair to note that it was the tenacity and imagination of R&D staffer Ben Cheese that got the product to the market."

When Sinclair sold up he formed a company called Flare with two other ex-Sinclair engineers, John Mathieson and Martin Brennan, who made the Flare 1 computer system, used in some arcade cabinets, documented in issue 11 (August 1988) of ACE magazine, and developed into the Konix Multisystem Slipstream prototype, then the unreleased Atari Panther, and finally returning to the mass market with the Atari Jaguar.

On http://www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk/Museum/Sinclair/sinclair.htm a quote from an email from Andrew Owen described Ben as: "an incredibly talented and even more incredibly nice chap who was one of the QL engineers. He also did mildly subversive cartoons for the Sinclair in-house newsletter (WHAM!, or What's Happening At Milton), and played saxophone with Shakatak, on one occasion."

Ben Cheese died on 21st January 2001, at the age of 46.