Telecommunications Research Establishment
52°06′00″N 2°18′58″W / 52.100°N 2.316°W
The Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) was the main
The name was changed to Radar Research Establishment in 1953, and again to the Royal Radar Establishment in 1957. This article covers the precursor organizations and the Telecommunications Research Establishment up to the time of the name change. The later work at the site is described in the separate article about RRE.
History
TRE is best known for work on defensive and offensive radar. TRE also made substantial contributions to radio-navigation and to jamming enemy radio-navigation. Radar dominates the history.
The organization was originally at Bawdsey, later moving to Dundee and then Worth Matravers ('Swanage'), where it was renamed TRE. It subsequently moved to Malvern and then amalgamated with other establishments to become the Royal Radar Establishment.
Bawdsey
The development of radar in the United Kingdom was started by Sir
Dundee
Bawdsey was only a short E-boat dash across the North Sea from the Netherlands, a fact that was not lost on the Air Ministry. Watson-Watt planned to move the teams to a safer location in the event of war, and approached the rector of his alma mater, University College at Dundee. It is not clear whose fault it was, but when the war opened in 1939 the AMES teams rushed to Dundee they found the rector was only dimly aware of the earlier conversation and nothing had been prepared. By this time the students had returned for the autumn term and consequently there was little room for the researchers.
In addition to lacking room at the University, the teams working on
The "Army Cell" that had formed to take advantage of the AMES research initially followed their moves. In 1941 they moved to join their colleagues of the
Worth Matravers
By the early part of 1940 it was clear that the location in Dundee was not going to work in the long term. A new location was ultimately selected west of Worth Matravers on the south coast of England, a short distance from the ADRDE teams. The location had a number of advantages, including good views over the English Channel not unlike the ones they had at Bawdsey. However, there was also no infrastructure at the site, which had to be hurriedly prepared. As there was no real village at the site, the location is often referred to as Swanage, a small town a short distance to the east.
The move took place in late May 1940, and further annoyance was created when the careful planning for the move was upset with the AI team arrived first. On arrival, what was AMES was renamed again as the Ministry of Aircraft Production Research Establishment (MAPRE). It was established as the central research group for RAF applications of radar. The name was once again changed to the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) in November 1940.
Malvern
In parallel with these technical developments, the Ministry of Home Security developed a plan, early in 1939, "to evacuate the critical functions of government out of London" if a threat of air raids developed. A site was purchased in Malvern for the Ministry itself. Although it was not developed, the location had become well known to defence officials.[2] The Air Ministry acquired jurisdiction, and used the site for a Signals Training Establishment, housed in prefabricated one storey buildings. In May 1942, the Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE) was set up on the site, to develop truck mounted early warning radars.
In the second week of February 1942, the German battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau escaped from Brest in the Channel Dash. They were undetected until well into the English Channel because German ground forces had gradually increased the jamming of British radar over a period of weeks. The British command had not realized this was happening.
In the aftermath,
The former Telecommunications Research Establishment moved to
At the end of the war TRE moved from Malvern College, to HMS Duke, a Royal Navy training school,[4] about a mile away in St. Andrews Road adjacent to the area of Barnards Green.
Research and development
Radio navigation (navigational beam) systems are based on the transmission of pulsed radio beams that are detected by aircraft. R. J. Dippy devised the GEE (also called AMES Type 7000) radio navigation system at TRE, where it was developed into a powerful instrument for increasing the accuracy of bombing raids.
Radio jamming
The counter measure to radio navigation was jamming.
Radar
The development of
Parallel work was carried out on
The Oboe blind bombing system was designed and developed by Frank Jones at TRE in collaboration with Alec Reeves at the Royal Aircraft Establishment. Oboe transponders were fitted to Mosquitoes of 109 Squadron, which developed the use of the device as part of the Pathfinder Force. The Mosquito was chosen because the transponder device mounted in the airplane was not large, and its use required the aircraft to fly for 10 minutes on a straight and level course. That being the case speed was essential to avoid being intercepted. In addition, the Mosquito could reach 30,000 feet altitude, and this improved the range across the continent that the device could be used over.
The
The
Radar trainers were designed and developed by Geoffrey Dummer.
The priority that Winston Churchill placed on the development and deployment of radar is described by Sir Bernard Lovell:[5] Every day Sir Robert Renwick would phone Lovell or Dee, asking "any news, any problems" [and these would be] dealt with by Renwick's immediate access to Churchill.
Other work
Radar jamming was developed by Robert Cockburn. The resulting devices, such as Mandrel, Carpet, Piperack, and Jostle, were carried or used by aircraft of No. 100 Group RAF for radio countermeasures and ECM purposes to combat the increasing German night fighter force then opposing the RAF night attacks on Germany.
Cathode ray tubes, for radar display, and a variety of electronic components were developed under direction of Geoffrey Dummer.
Flight simulators were developed by A.M. Uttley.[6]
Electronic computer systems were developed by Philip Woodward.
In 1942 the staffing level was about 2000 people; by 1945 increased electronics production had increased this number to around 3500 staff.
Successor organisations
TRE was combined with the Radar Research and Development Establishment in 1953 to form the Radar Research Establishment.
This was renamed the Royal Radar Establishment in 1957.
It became the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in 1976 when the Army Signals Research and Development Establishment (SRDE) moved to Malvern.
It was made part of the Defence Research Agency (DRA) in April 1991.
This was renamed Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) in April 1995.
In July 2000 it was split into two entities comprising the private sector company
Staff and their contributions
Staff were affectionately known as
- MBEJoined radar radio research in 1924. Worked at various TRE locations. Responsible for masts and other equipment. Was Senior Technical Officer at the time he was awarded the MBE. Rose to Station Manager RSRE by the time of his retirement.
- Cathode ray tubes, Chain Home stations, radar, super-refraction and infra-red detectors; later, at the University of Glasgow on nuclear photo-disintegration; and in administration at UKAEA Dounreay, the British Ship Research Association and Heriot-Watt University.
- C. E. Bellinger was one of the people "all of whom achieved eminence in their respective fields".[7]
- pulse modulator, a key element of the H2S airborne radar, vital to bombing missions. He died in the crash of an H2S test flight in June 1942, together with fellow TRE/EMI personnel, F/O Geoffrey Hensby RAFVR, B.Sc. Hons, Cecil Browne and Frank Blythen.
- Henry G. Booker,
- B. V. Bowden, worked on radar. Later, he became Baron Bowden, of Chesterfield in the County of Derbyshire, Minister for Education and Science in 1964 and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology,
- Orfordness who, by 1935, had developed the radar that first detected an aircraft. This led to the Chain Home ground-based radar. At Bawdsey, he began development of airborne radar. In 1940 he went to the U.S. with the Tizard Mission. In 1943 he joined the CSIROin Australia.
- R. P. Chasmar, co-author of definitive text The Detection and Measurement of Infra-red Radiation, Clarendon Press, 1960 and, for many years, Head of the infra-red group at RRE.[7]
- Robert Cockburn, electronics engineer. He directed the development of radar jamming systems (counter measures) code named Window and widely known as Chaff. An obituary[14] describes this work as "a main contributor to the reduction of civilian [air raid]casualties ... and [bomber] losses". He is in a group photograph.[7] Later, he was knighted.
- Manhattan projectwhen he did.
- Manhattan project in 1944, where he invented the scintillation counter, then the United Kingdom Atomic energy authority where he invented the proportional counter, then became Vice Chancellor of the Royal College of Science and Technology and led it to become the University of Strathclyde. He was knighted.
- Philip Dee designed the Automatic Gun-Laying Turret, known by the code name Village Inn,
- IEEE in 1966 for hyperbolic radio navigation.[16]
- G. W. A. Dummer, electronics engineer. He developed the plan position indicator radar display. As head of Synthetic Trainer Design Group, he was responsible for the design, manufacture, installation and servicing of over 70 types of radar training equipment during World War II. In 1944, he became Divisional Leader of the Physical and Tropical Testing Laboratories and the Component Group, that had responsibility for outside contracts. Later, he was one of the innovators of integrated circuits. For his further work see Royal Radar Establishment and his personal article.
- A. F. Gibson, Head of Rutherford Laboratory.[7]
- Antony Hewish, physicist and radio astronomer. He worked with Martin Ryle at TRE on the design of antennas for airborne radar during World War II. In 1984, they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics.
- Alan Hodgkin was primarily a physiologist and biophysicist, who worked on the Automatic Gun-Laying Turretand later won a Nobel Prize and was knighted,
- "Frank" Jones (Francis Edgar Jones, later FRS, MBE),[17] worked with Alec Reeves at the Royal Aircraft Establishment to design and develop the Oboe blind bombing system,
- Freddy Williams on radar at TRE during the war. He then went to the University of Manchester where he was a pioneer of computer hardware, both he and Williams being involved in the design of the Manchester Baby.
- Sir Jodrell Bank.
- G. G. MacFarlane, later knighted[18]
- T. S. Moss, author of definitive monographs Photoconductivity of the elements and Optical Properties of semiconductors,
- W H (Bill) Penley, compiler of archives on early history of radar[19]
- John Pinkerton, later developed Leo computer at the Lyons company,[20]
- Operational Research.
- MIT, and Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University.
- Martin Ryle, physicist and radio astronomer. He worked at the Telecommunications Research Establishment on the design of antennas for airborne radar during the war. Later, he was knighted in 1966, was Astronomer Royal 1978–1982, and shared the Nobel Prize Physics with Antony Hewish in 1984.
- Joshua Sieger, electronics engineer. At Worth Matravers, he designed large-screen displays of radar signals, arranging further components to triangulate a target. At other times, he made many contributions to electronics and communications technology.
- RRE, with a distinctive approach to air defence cybernetics. Left to head the pioneering Autonomics Division at the National Physical Laboratory where he did research on machine intelligence and brain modeling. However, he also became well known as a neuropsychologist, having made several important contributions to the field. Later Professor of Psychology at Sussex University.[22]
- F. C. Williams (Freddy), engineer. He worked on radar and servomechanisms at TRE during the war. He then moved to the University of Manchester, where he was a pioneer of computer hardware. He was knighted and became an FRS.
- RRE, he wrote a monograph on the topic.[23] His early results included the Woodward Ambiguity Function, "the standard tool for waveform and matched filter analysis".[24] Member of the Ratio Club.
- C. E. Wynn-Williamsworked on navigational radar briefly, and was transferred to cryptographic work at Bletchley Park.
- microprogramming, worked at TRE briefly during World War II.
- Hundreds of other staff members made direct and support contributions to the projects that have been mentioned and to other work of TRE. Many are listed, under the respective group names, by Penley.[25]
References
- ^ C. P. Snow (1963). Science and Government. London: The New English Library.
- ^ "Former DERA site, Great Malvern. Cotswold Archaeology"
- ISBN 0-241-89746-7.
- ISBN 0-9541520-4-2.
- ^ Bernard Lovell, Any news, any problems, New Scientist, 25 November 1982; [1]
- ^ "The Ratio Club". 17 September 2010.
- ^ a b c d e S.D. Smith, Robert Allan Smith, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, vol.28, 479-504, 1982.
- ^ William E. Gordon. Henry G. Booker (December 14, 1910 to November 1, 1988), Biographical Memoirs, National Academy Press, [2].
- ^ H.G. Booker, An approach to electrical science, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1959.
- ^ H.G. Booker, A vector approach to oscillations, Academic Press, New York, 1965.
- ^ H.G. Booker, Energy in Electromagnetism, Peregrinus Press, London, 1981.
- ^ H.G. Booker, Cold Plasma Waves, Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, 1984.
- ^ R. Hanbury Brown, Harry C. Minnett and Frederick W.G. White,Edward George Bowen 1911-1991, Historical Records of Australian Science, vol.9, no.2, 1992. "Australian Academy of Science - Biographical-Edward-George-Bowen". Archived from the original on 21 December 2010. Retrieved 3 November 2010. ; republished in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society of London, 1992.
- ^ Pace, Eric (4 April 1994). "Sir Robert Cockburn, Leader Of WWII Anti-Radar Effort, 85". The New York Times.
- ^ People -- see R.J. Dippy, on web site maintained by Purbeck Radar Museum Trust, [3][permanent dead link]
- Pioneer Award Aviation.
- ^ George G. MacFarlane and C. Hilsum, Francis Edgar Jones. 16 January 1914 – 10 April 1988, Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society, Vol. 35, 181-199, 1990.
- ^ Sir George Macfarlane: Talented technologist who made invaluable contributions in wartime and as a postwar public servant. Times on-line obituaries[4].
- ^ "Radar: Dr W H (Bill) Penley - Early Days of Radar".
- ^ Martin Campbell-Kelly, Pinkerton, John Maurice McLean (1919–1997), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Kevin Moore, The History of Flight-Sim Archived 2011-05-17 at the Wayback Machine
- ISBN 9780262083775.
- ISBN 9780890061039.
- ^ Malvern Gazette Retrieved 6 July 2009
- ^ Penley Radar Archives.TRE History, Penley Radar Archives.
Bibliography
- Batt, Reg: The Radar Army: Winning the War of the Airwaves (1991, Robert Hale, London) ISBN 0-7090-4508-5
- Burrows Stephen & Layton Michael (2018) 'Top Secret Worcestershire' Brewin Books ISBN 978-1858585819
- Gill, Holt (2003) Malvern Voices: WARTIME An Oral History Malvern Museum. ISBN 0-9541520-4-2
- Goult, Ian: Secret Location; A Witness to the Birth of Radar and its Postwar Influence (2010 The History Press Ltd) ISBN 978-0-7524-5776-5
- Latham, Colin & Stobbs, Anne: Pioneers of Radar (1999, Sutton, England) ISBN 0-7509-2120-X
- Putley, Ernest: Science comes to Malvern - TRE a Story of Radar 1942-1953 (2009, Aspect Design, Malvern)
- Penley, Jonathan & Penley, B. (2008) Secret War in Purbeck Purbeck Radar Museum Trust
- Eds. Robert Bud and ISBN 90-5702-481-0
See also
- Air Ministry Experimental Station
- RAF Defford
- Radiation Laboratory(MIT)
- Boffin
External links
- TRE History, Penley Radar Archives
- Purbeck Radar ~ Early Radar Development in the UK Origin of TRE in Purbeck, Dorset.
- Radar Recollections 1934 - 1944, Centre for the History of Defence Electronics, Bournemouth University
- EKCO WW II ASV radar units
- The story of RADAR Development
- The Radar Pages - All you ever wanted to know about British WWII and Cold War air defence radar
- "Radar Revealed - Exhibition of the Work of T.R.E. at Malvern" a 1948 Flight article
- "Radar and the Weather" a 1949 Flight article on TRE's involvement in developing weather radar
- "Exhibition: Scientists Come To Malvern". Malvern Radar and Technology History Society. 2016.