| Sir Stafford Cripps and almost
certainly Sir Winston Churchill believed that without Radar we would
have lost the Second World War. Because of the need for extreme secrecy
little was made known at the time about the amazing story of its
development in the UK, and this is still true even though its use is now
commonplace. I was privileged to have been a member of the leading Radar
Research and Development team throughout the War and subsequently
remained in the Government Service working on Defence matters
subsequently becoming responsible for the whole Defence research
programme.
Following the security rules I did not keep any significant personal
notes or records but have some diaries that recorded my movements and
the dates of some of the meetings I attended.
The papers, records and personal memories in these archives were
collected after 1988 - over 45 years after the actual events. They do
not pretend to be a comprehensive record but I believe they will help to
provide a better understanding of what was achieved and how a group of
outstanding Scientists and Engineers worked together to achieve such
remarkable results.
Miss Dudley the Chief Librarian at the Royal Radar and Signals
Establishment in Malvern provided what information she could and Dr
Ernest Putley who was sorting out their historical records also was most
helpful. Douglas Fisher who was a member of our photographic group
throughout the war provided many pictures from negatives he had retained
of photographs he took during this period to add to photographs I
already had.
I was able to persuade many of my colleagues to write their personal
memories of that time. Anne Stobbs and Colin Latham used extracts from
some of these in their book 'Pioneers of Radar'. Some more comprehensive
records by individuals were provided and several have written and
published biographies. Sqn/Ldr Hayward has written at length on
associated RAF matters.
I wrote notes for lectures on 'The Early Days of
Radar' and recorded
a shortened version to make a video - this was not completed but the
recorded text (in .wav format) provides an outline and could have
pictures added. I also wrote chapters for an autobiography covering this
period. All these are in the archives.
As far as possible I am scanning the more significant papers to make
them easily available as computer records. |
