Charles Oatley was educated at Cambridge University, and was subsequently a lecturer at Kings College, London.  In the war he became a member of John Cockroft's team working on Army Radar at the Air Defence Research & Development Establishment (ADRDE) in Christchurch. He initially concentrated on devising and providing test equipment to operate at the novel very high frequencies involved.  This work was of major assistance to all working in this new field.  Later he was Cockroft's deputy and took over the leadership of the Army Radar Establishment in Malvern when Cockcroft left.

He later returned to Cambridge University fresh from his experience in the development of radar and from 1960 to 1971 he was Professor of Electrical Engineering.  He thought that new techniques could be employed to overcome some of the problems encountered in pre-war efforts to develop an electron microscope.  Oatley's work led directly to the launch of the world's first series of commercial scanning electron microscopes produced in 1965.

He was a director of the English Electric Valve Company from 1966 - 1985. In 1969 he was elected to the Royal Society and knighted in 1974. He was also a founder member of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

Sir Charles Oatley FRS
14 February 1904 - 11 March 1996

Bill Penley Jan 2011