Stanley Hey joined the Army Operational Research Group (AORG) in December 1940. His main task was to study and improve the performance of the radar equipments being used. He was particularly charged with guarding against enemy jamming. 

In February 1942 a new kind of jamming was reported which periodically disrupted the army defence radar system.  After careful and detailed study Hey reported that the signals were emanating from the sun. This was initially greeted with scepticism but he discovered two other phenomena: the distant discrete cosmic radio source, and radar signals from meteors.  These were ultimately the main events that led to the development of radio astronomy and major research centres at Jodrell Bank and Cambridge.

He was also responsible for many other very significant operational studies such as the detection of V2s to determine the launching sites. 

He was head of AORG from 1949 - 1952 and then joined the Physics Department at TRE where he worked on radio and radar astronomy and associated subjects for the next 17 years. He co-operated closely with Sir Bernard Lovell at Jodrell Bank and with Sir John Mason Director of the Meteorological Office.

Dr James Stanley Hey MBE FRS
3 May 1909 - 27 Feb 2000

Bill Penley Jan 2011