Royal Radar Establishment
Encyclopedia
The name Royal Radar Establishment was given to the existing Radar Research Establishment following a visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 1957. Both names were abbreviated to RRE. The establishment had been formed, under its first name, in 1953 by merging the Telecommunications Research Establishment
Telecommunications Research Establishment
The Telecommunications Research Establishment was the main United Kingdom research and development organization for radio navigation, radar, infra-red detection for heat seeking missiles, and related work for the Royal Air Force during World War II and the years that followed. The name was...

 (TRE) and the Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE). These had worked on airborne and ground based radar, respectively. RRE was located in Malvern
Malvern, Worcestershire
Malvern is a town and civil parish in Worcestershire, England, governed by Malvern Town Council. As of the 2001 census it has a population of 28,749, and includes the historical settlement and commercial centre of Great Malvern on the steep eastern flank of the Malvern Hills, and the former...

, Worcestershire
Worcestershire
Worcestershire is a non-metropolitan county, established in antiquity, located in the West Midlands region of England. For Eurostat purposes it is a NUTS 3 region and is one of three counties that comprise the "Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire" NUTS 2 region...

, where both TRE and RRDE had been housed at different sites. The earlier research and development work of TRE and RRDE on radar
Radar
Radar is an object-detection system which uses radio waves to determine the range, altitude, direction, or speed of objects. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain. The radar dish or antenna transmits pulses of radio...

, solid state physics, electronics
Electronics
Electronics is the branch of science, engineering and technology that deals with electrical circuits involving active electrical components such as vacuum tubes, transistors, diodes and integrated circuits, and associated passive interconnection technologies...

, and computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

 hardware and software was continued in the merged establishment, and the overall scope was extended to include cryogenics
Cryogenics
In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature and the behavior of materials at those temperatures. A person who studies elements under extremely cold temperature is called a cryogenicist. Rather than the relative temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit,...

 and other topics. Infrared detection
Infrared homing
Infrared homing refers to a passive missile guidance system which uses the emission from a target of electromagnetic radiation in the infrared part of the spectrum to track and follow it. Missiles which use infrared seeking are often referred to as "heat-seekers", since infrared is just below the...

 for guided missiles and heat sensing devices was a major defence application.

Administrative history

The earlier radar research organization B.R.S. (Bawdsey
Bawdsey
Bawdsey is a village and civil parish in Suffolk, eastern England. Located near Felixstowe, it had an estimated population of 340 in 2007.Bawdsey Manor is notable as the place where radar research took place early in World War II, before moving to Worth Matravers, which is four miles to the west of...

 Research Station) was on the east coast of England, about 10 miles north east of Felixstowe
Felixstowe
Felixstowe is a seaside town on the North Sea coast of Suffolk, England. The town gives its name to the nearby Port of Felixstowe, which is the largest container port in the United Kingdom and is owned by Hutchinson Ports UK...

. It moved to Dundee
Dundee
Dundee is the fourth-largest city in Scotland and the 39th most populous settlement in the United Kingdom. It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firth of Tay, which feeds into the North Sea...

 in Scotland, at the outbreak of World War II, and changed its name to Air Ministry Research Establishment (A.M.R.E.). In May, 1940, the organization moved to Worth Matravers, near Swanage
Swanage
Swanage is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is situated at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck, approximately 10 km south of Poole and 40 km east of Dorchester. The parish has a population of 10,124 . Nearby are Ballard Down and Old Harry Rocks,...

 in Dorset, on the south coast of England. The organization was renamed again, as Air Ministry Telecommunications Research Establishment. In May 1942, TRE moved to Malvern. The Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE) had split off earlier, and was moved to Malvern at about the same time. TRE
Telecommunications Research Establishment
The Telecommunications Research Establishment was the main United Kingdom research and development organization for radio navigation, radar, infra-red detection for heat seeking missiles, and related work for the Royal Air Force during World War II and the years that followed. The name was...

 and the history of radar
History of radar
The history of radar starts with experiments by Heinrich Hertz in the late 19th century that showed that radio waves were reflected by metallic objects. This possibility was suggested in James Clerk Maxwell's seminal work on electromagnetism...

 are discussed in separate articles.

TRE was part of the Ministry of Supply
Ministry of Supply
The Ministry of Supply was a department of the UK Government formed in 1939 to co-ordinate the supply of equipment to all three British armed forces, headed by the Minister of Supply. There was, however, a separate ministry responsible for aircraft production and the Admiralty retained...

 and, when it was formed, so was RRE. In 1959, control passed to the Ministry of Aviation
Ministry of Aviation
Ministry of Aviation was a department of the United Kingdom government, established in 1959. Its responsibilities included the regulation of civil aviation and the supply of military aircraft, which it took on from the Ministry of Supply....

. When this was abolished in 1967, control passed to the Ministry of Technology, then to the Ministry of Aviation Supply, in 1970, and to the Ministry of Defence
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)
The Ministry of Defence is the United Kingdom government department responsible for implementation of government defence policy and is the headquarters of the British Armed Forces....

 in 1971. In 1976 RRE merged with the Signals Research and Development Establishment
Signals Research and Development Establishment
The Signals Research and Development Establishment was a British government military research establishment, based in Christchurch, Dorset from 1948 until it merged with the Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern, Worcestershire to form the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment in 1980...

 to form the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment
Royal Signals and Radar Establishment
The Royal Signals and Radar Establishment was a scientific research establishment within the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom, located primarily at Malvern in Worcestershire. It was formed in 1976 in an amalgamation of earlier research establishments including the Royal Radar Establishment...

 (RSRE), which became part of the Defence Research Agency
Defence Research Agency
The Defence Research Agency , was an executive agency of the UK Ministry of Defence from April 1991 until April 1995. At the time the DRA was Britain's largest science and technology organisation...

 (DRA) in 1991. The DRA split on 2 June 2001 into two parts, a government body called DSTL
Dstl
The Defence Science and Technology Laboratory is a trading fund of the Ministry of Defence of the United Kingdom. Responsibility for Dstl lies with the Minister for Defence Equipment, Support and Technology, currently Peter Luff....

 (Defence Science and Technology Laboratory) and a company destined for privatisation, which became QinetiQ
QinetiQ
Qinetiq is a British global defence technology company, formed from the greater part of the former UK government agency, Defence Evaluation and Research Agency , when it was split up in June 2001...

.

The technical departments of RRE were grouped, initially, into six Divisions: airborne radar, ground radar, guided weapons, basic techniques, physics, and engineering. The organization and personnel are described further, in a collection of linked web sites.

W. J. Richards, CBE, was Director of TRE at the time of the merger and continued as Director of RRE. W.H. Penley, Head of Guided Missiles, took over for a year in 1961. Then George Macfarlane (after postings outside RRE) became Director in 1962.

The Physics Division -- some of the staff and their work

At the time of the name change to Radar Research Establishment in 1953, the senior staff included
  • Robert Allen Smith (known as R.A. and as Robin). He was Head of the Physics Division, with a staff of about 150. Having worked previously on aspects of radio and radar, his attention had become focused on solid state physics, because of the importance of semiconductors in the development of electronics and infra-red detectors. His early books had dealt with radionavigation
    Radio navigation
    Radio navigation or radionavigation is the application of radio frequencies to determine a position on the Earth. Like radiolocation, it is a type of radiodetermination.The basic principles are measurements from/to electric beacons, especially...

    , aerials for short wave radio, and thermodynamics
    Thermodynamics
    Thermodynamics is a physical science that studies the effects on material bodies, and on radiation in regions of space, of transfer of heat and of work done on or by the bodies or radiation...

    . After the name change to RRE, his "most significant book, in historical terms", on the detection of infra-red radiation, was coauthored with F.E. Jones and R.P. Chasmar and published in 1968. The book "for which [he] is best known" is on semiconductors His other books dealt with wave mechanics of crystalline solids. and, as editor, very high resolution spectroscopy, He left RRE to become Professor of Physics at the University of Sheffield in 1961, came to MIT as Director of the Center for Materials Science and Engineering a year later, and became Vice-Chancellor of Heriot-Watt University
    Heriot-Watt University
    Heriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer....

     in 1968, retiring in 1974. He was an FRS, an FRSE, and received an OBE.
  • George G. MacFarlane. He held a special appointment as Superintendent of the Physics Department, having been assigned to direct the work in theoretical physics. He had been trained as an electrical engineer, and had worked on theoretical aspects of radar prior to the name change of the establishment. Later, he became Deputy Director of the National Physical Laboratory, then Director of RRE, then Controller of Research at the Ministry of Technology and then Defence. He was knighted for his work.
  • R. P. Chasmar, Head of the infra-red group and co-author of the book mentioned above.
  • Tom Elliott
    C. Thomas Elliott
    Charles Thomas Elliott , FRS, CBE, is a leading scientist in the fields of narrow gap semiconductor and infrared detector research. Hailing from county Durham, after gaining his Ph.D., he worked at the University of Manchester before joining RRE in Malvern, Worcestershire in the late 1960s...

     (Charles Thomas Elliott), physicist, at RRE from late 1960s through transition to DERA
    DERA
    DERA may refer as an abbreviation or acronym to:*Defence Evaluation and Research Agency*Downtown Eastside Residents Association – in Vancouver, British Columbia*Direct Epitope Recognition Assay*Disaster preparedness and Emergency Response Association...

    . He invented the SPRITE detector
    SPRITE infrared detector
    The SPRITE infrared detector is named after the process of signal integration carried out by "Signal Processing In The Element". The technique was invented at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment at Malvern by a team of scientists including Tom Elliott....

    , and contributed to the development of indium antimonide as an industrial semiconductor. The "Tom Elliott Centre" at the site was named in his honour. He was made an FRS and CBE, received a Rank medal, and joined Heriot-Watt University
    Heriot-Watt University
    Heriot-Watt University is a university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. The name commemorates George Heriot, the 16th century financier to King James, and James Watt, the great 18th century inventor and engineer....

    .
  • Alan F. Gibson, Head of Transistor Group at RRE, then the first Professor of Physics at the University of Essex
    University of Essex
    The University of Essex is a British campus university whose original and largest campus is near the town of Colchester, England. Established in 1963 and receiving its Royal Charter in 1965...

     in 1963, and later Head of Laser Division of Rutherford Laboratory (1975–1983). He was named Fellow of the Royal Society in 1978.
  • Cyril Hilsum
    Cyril Hilsum
    Cyril Hilsum CBE FRS FREng HonFInstP is a British physicist and academic.-Life:He entered Raine's Foundation School in 1936 as the middle of three brothers, leaving in 1943 after being accepted into University College London, where he did his Bsc. In 1945 he joined the Royal Naval Scientific...

    , physicist. Work in industrial and government laboratories and in academe includes theoretical solid state physics and development of liquid crystal
    Liquid crystal
    Liquid crystals are a state of matter that have properties between those of a conventional liquid and those of a solid crystal. For instance, an LC may flow like a liquid, but its molecules may be oriented in a crystal-like way. There are many different types of LC phases, which can be...

    s. Elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and Fellow of the Royal Society, recipient of Max Born prize
    Max Born prize
    The Max Born Prize is a scientific prize awarded yearly by the German Physical Society and the British Institute of Physics in memory of the German physicist Max Born. The terms of the award are that it is "to be presented for outstanding contributions to physics"...

     and Faraday medal
    Faraday Medal
    The Faraday Medal is a medal awarded by the Institution of Electrical Engineers The bronze medal is awarded without restriction as regards nationality, country of...

    .
  • Edward G. S. Paige, Worked on semiconductors, with Denis Maines turned to Surface acoustic wave
    Surface acoustic wave
    ]A surface acoustic wave is an acoustic wave traveling along the surface of a material exhibiting elasticity, with an amplitude that typically decays exponentially with depth into the substrate.-Discovery:...

     (SAW) devices, led team that received Wolfe Medal of MOD and earned RRE a Queen's Award, later Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Oxford, awarded Rayleigh Medal
    Rayleigh Medal
    The Rayleigh Medal is a prize awarded annually by the Institute of Acoustics for "outstanding contributions to acoustics". The prize is named after John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh.-List of recipients:...

     and Duddell Medal
    Duddell Medal and Prize
    The Duddell Medal and Prize was a prize awarded annually by the Institute of Physics in the memory of William du Bois Duddell, the inventor of the electromagnetic oscillograph. The medal was instituted by the Council of The Physical Society in 1923. Between 1961 and 1973 the prize was awarded in...

    ,
  • Leo Pincherle Head of the theoretical solid state physics group, and authority on band structure theory. His monograph on this topic was published in 1971. He also published a standard text on heat and thermodynamics, during his later appointment as Professor of Physics at Bedford College, London.
  • Albert M. Uttley, mathematician, computer scientist and experimental psychologist. Designed AI trainer, the TREAC digital computer, and contributed to early discussions of cybernetics
    Cybernetics
    Cybernetics is the interdisciplinary study of the structure of regulatory systems. Cybernetics is closely related to information theory, control theory and systems theory, at least in its first-order form...

    . Continued human factors work at National Physical Laboratory and then as Research Professor in the Experimental Psychology Laboratory of the University of Sussex.
  • Philip Woodward
    Philip Woodward
    Philip Woodward is a British mathematician, radar engineer and horologist. He has achieved notable success in all three fields. Before retirement, he was a Deputy Chief Scientific Officer at the Royal Signals and Radar Establishment of the British Ministry of Defence in Malvern,...

     had pioneered the application of probability theory to the filtering of radar signals, and wrote a monograph on the topic. His results included the Woodward Ambiguity Function, "the standard tool for waveform and matched filter analysis". He continued to direct theoretical work on radar after the establishment changed its name. Later, he led the group that developed the Coral 66 computer programming language. He was, at different times, Honorary Professor in Electrical Engineering at the University of Birmingham and Visiting Professor in Cybernetics at the University of Reading. In 2000, the Woodward Building named in his honour was opened on the site that had then become DERA
    DERA
    DERA may refer as an abbreviation or acronym to:*Defence Evaluation and Research Agency*Downtown Eastside Residents Association – in Vancouver, British Columbia*Direct Epitope Recognition Assay*Disaster preparedness and Emergency Response Association...

    by Sir John Chisholm. In 2005, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Royal Academy of Engineering
    Royal Academy of Engineering
    -Overview: is the UK’s national academy of engineering. The Academy brings together the most successful and talented engineers from across the engineering sectors for a shared purpose: to advance and promote excellence in engineering....

    . In 2009, he received the Dennis J. Picard Medal of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
    Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
    The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers is a non-profit professional association headquartered in New York City that is dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence...

     (IEEE), for Radar Technologies and Applications.


Other members of the Physics Division who made significant contributions to several fields of endeavour include:
  • William Bardsley, physicist. His work at Malvern on growing crystals was published in a series of papers that have been referenced over 200 times through the time of writing (2010), in work on semiconductor devices and, in one instance, space science.
  • Michael P Barnett, (1929--). At Malvern he worked on theory of semiconductors, including organic materials. Later, he taught at MIT, the University of London, Columbia University and City University of New York. His earlier publications on several topics has been followed by more recent work on computational chemistry and symbolic calculation.
  • Paul N. Butcher, theoretical solid state physics. After working at Malvern, he was appointed to a chair at the University of Warwick, and has published four books.
  • Geoffrey V. Chester, theoretical physicist. At Malvern (1953—54), he worked on mathematical problems of radar. Later, at Cornell University, he was Director of the Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics (1968–74) and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences (1986–91).
  • J. B. Gunn, solid state physicist. At Malvern he worked on the physics of electronic devices. Later, at the IBM Research Laboratories in the U.S., he discovered the Gunn effect used in the Gunn diode
    Gunn diode
    A Gunn diode, also known as a transferred electron device , is a form of diode used in high-frequency electronics. It is somewhat unusual in that it consists only of N-doped semiconductor material, whereas most diodes consist of both P and N-doped regions...

    .
  • W.D. Lawson, co-recipient of Rank Prize for Optoelectronics in 1976,
  • T. S. Moss, solid state physicist, author of definitive monographs Photoconductivity of the elements and Optical Properties of semiconductors, and series editor of Handbook on Semiconductors of the North-Holland Publishing Company.
  • Michael J. Radcliffe, theoretical physicist. Later, he turned to academe in the Carnegie Institute of Technology in the U.S., and he was listed as coauthor in a revised edition of Born's Atomic Physics.
  • S. Nielson, co-recipient of Rank Prize for Optoelectronics in 1976,
  • Michael J. Radcliffe, theoretical physicist. Later on the faculty of Carnegie Institute of Technology, editor of revised edition of Born's Atomic Physics
  • Dennis Sciama
    Dennis William Sciama
    Dennis William Siahou Sciama FRS was a British physicist who, through his own work and that of his students, played a major role in developing British physics after the Second World War. He is considered as one of the fathers of modern cosmology.-Life:Sciama was born in Manchester, England...

    , later cosmologist and FRS. At RRE he coauthored work on band structure calculations.
  • A.S. Young, co-recipient of Rank Prize for Optoelectronics in 1976.
  • Several staff members, in conjunction with George Gray
    George William Gray
    George William Gray CBE, FRS is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Hull who was instrumental in developing the long-lasting materials which made liquid crystal displays possible...

     and Ken Harrison of the University of Hull
    University of Hull
    The University of Hull, known informally as Hull University, is an English university, founded in 1927, located in Hull, a city in the East Riding of Yorkshire...

    , developed new, stable liquid crystals in 1972, which were an immediate success as the basis of display devices
    Liquid crystal display
    A liquid crystal display is a flat panel display, electronic visual display, or video display that uses the light modulating properties of liquid crystals . LCs do not emit light directly....

     in the electronics and consumer products industries.http://www.hull.ac.uk/chemistry/landmark.php. This received the Queen's Award for Technological Achievement.


In 1956, R.A. Smith presented a comprehensive account of the contributions of RRE to physics to the Royal Society.

Radar, Guided weapons and Engineering Divisions

Although less conspicuous among academic scientists, these divisions were major players in the defence community, both in policy decision making and as an interface with industry. Development and production contracts brought staff of several companies on site, and extramural contracts strengthened ties with industry still further. "in radar alone: Plessey
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the second world war by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies...

 and Decca
Decca Radar
The Decca Company, a British gramophone manufacturer that, as Decca Records, released records under the Decca label, contributed to the British war effort during the Second World War...

 for aerials and waveguides, Plessey
Plessey
The Plessey Company plc was a British-based international electronics, defence and telecommunications company. It originated in 1917, growing and diversifying into electronics. It expanded after the second world war by acquisition of companies and formed overseas companies...

, Hilger & Watts, Clarke Chapman and Curran for millimetre-wave radar, and Mullard
Mullard
Mullard Limited was a British manufacturer of electronic components. The Mullard Radio Valve Co. Ltd. of Southfields, London, was founded in 1920 by Captain Stanley R. Mullard, who had previously designed valves for the Admiralty before becoming managing director of the Z Electric Lamp Co. The...

 for precision bombing and radar reconnaissance". On returning to RRE as Director in 1962, George Macfarlane reorganized the technical departments into: Military and Civil Systems (comprising Ground Radar and Air Traffic Control, Guided Weapons and Airborne Radar groups), Physics and Electronics (comprising Physics and Electronic Groups) and Engineering. "Despite the policy shift away from fighters ... to guided weapons for UK air defence, ... RRE continued to argue for strike aircraft and kept up the necessary radar research programs."

Senior staff, of the divisions at various times included
  • G.W.A (Geoffrey) Dummer
    Geoffrey Dummer
    Geoffrey William Arnold Dummer, MBE , C.Eng., IEE Premium Award, FIEEE, MIEE, USA Medal of Freedom with Bronze Palm was a British electronics engineer and consultant who is credited as being the first person to conceptualise and build a prototype of the integrated circuit, commonly called the...

    , electronics engineer. His early work is described in the TRE
    TRE
    TRE might stand for:*3 , a mobile operator in Sweden*Tampere, a city in Finland*Telecommunications Research Establishment, British radar research organization...

     article. His oversight of the large contingent of electronics contractors continued, and he was appointed Superintendent of Applied Physics. In 1964 he sponsored a symposium on Electronic Beam Techniques for Microelectronics at R.R.E. He published over 30 books, was responsible for much further publishing on electronics. He was awarded an MBE, the American Medal of Freedom, the Wakefield Gold Medal of the Royal Aeronautical Society
    Royal Aeronautical Society
    The Royal Aeronautical Society, also known as the RAeS, is a multidisciplinary professional institution dedicated to the global aerospace community.-Function:...

    , and the Cledo Brunetti Award
    IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award
    The IEEE Cledo Brunetti Award is an award is presented for outstanding contributions to nanotechnology and miniaturization in the electronics arts. It may be presented to an individual or a team of up to three...

     of the Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers
  • W. H. (Bill) Penley, physicist. Head of Guided Weapons at time of name change. Later Director of RRE, then Controller of Establishments and Research - responsible for the whole Defence research programme.


More than 50 books were written by members of the establishment under its successive names. Details are included in the list of references below, and in the TRE
TRE
TRE might stand for:*3 , a mobile operator in Sweden*Tampere, a city in Finland*Telecommunications Research Establishment, British radar research organization...

 article. Many more were in series that members of the staff edited.

In 1968, the Minister of Supply assured a member of parliament that the results of research at RRE on infra-red detectors would be made available to British industry.

External links

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