Marconi Instruments - 1964 Diary and Notes.

Wednesday January 1st 1964 was the first day of my new appointment as Research Manager at M.I. For the first time my M.I. desk diary had my initials engraved in gold on the front cover! Derrick Grover, a welcome recruit to my Department, had just arrived for duty and a secretary to the Research Department, a Miss J. Mitchell, was soon to join. Things appeared to be looking up.

Herts Advertiser featured the new appointments of Arthur Wray and myself in an item headlined "Promotion for chairman of rural council". There were pictures of both of us. Arthur Wray expressed regret about my second billing.

The appointments of Arthur Wray and myself, with photos, were also announced in the February 1964 issue of Wireless World, along with also similar entries for Martin Ryle, F.E. Jones, B.V. Bowden (Manchester), P.M.S. Blackett and R.J. Clayton. 64b00 .

On the second day of my new appointment a Mr. Stan Urry of Livingston Laboratories arrived with a Mr. J. Prosser of the Solid State Division of Varian Associates. I cannot now think what the purpose of the visit was. Before long I met Jeremy Prosser during my anxious association with Cambridge Consultants.

Before the first week was out a Corpus Christi Oxford, Mechanical Science Tripos student on the first year of a 1-3-1 course joined the Department.

In the evening of January 9th I took my M.I. colleagues Ernest Garthwaite and Arthur Wray to a Dinner at the IEE. I was a member of the IEE Council Dining Club and could take guests to the excellent dinners which were held after some of the more important evening lectures. The setting of these occasions was a long room looking out across the sparkling Thames towards the Festival Hall. When I went on my own I found myself seated next to some very interesting people. One such was the lively Captain P.P. Eckersley, former Chief Engineer of the BBC. Another was Aubrey Jones who, I think, was a Government adviser.

The occasion when I invited my M.I. colleagues as my guests followed the Hunter Memorial lecture and came alive with convivial informality. Sir Albert Mumford of the Post Office presided and one of the chief guests was Lord MacFadzean of British Insulated Callenders Cables. In one little episode, Sir Albert started speaking before the microphone, which had been borrowed by Lord M. for the telling of an anecdote, had been returned to him. Lord M. rushed up with the microphone whereupon. Sir Albert brought the house down by remarking that Lord M. was late with deliveries, as usual. Ernest Garthwaite and Arthur Wray both expressed their appreciation of the evening. The following morning, Ray Burnett expressed approval of my action in entertaining my two colleagues.

Party politics received little mention at M.I. Ray Burnett did once say that Selwyn Lloyd, who at the time was the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, was a chap just like myself. Arthur Wray once remarked that a TV programme he had watched was manifestly biased to the Left. I said I thought it had been an unduly favourable to the Right. Our reactions suggest it was a well-balanced programme. That is all I can remember of Party Politics at M.I.

Following a visit to the House of Commons as a student I was more interested in the varied reports of Parliamentary business given in different newspapers. I was sceptical about Party Political claims and in a political discussion, although I had always voted Conservative, I generally put an alternative political view to the one being expressed.

On Friday 10th January I paid the first of three visits to Government Establishments. I had received a request from the Fighting Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (FVRDE) for assistance in a project for the Pakistan Army. After a journey under difficult driving conditions I discussed the project with a Mr. Pym & Mr. Uffingham - I cannot find a note I must have made about the visit. After the weekend I journeyed on the still somewhat hazardous roads to Fort Halstead to discuss with a Mr. Reburn & a Mr. Burns an Army requirement for servo test gear for gun-laying equipment on tanks and other vehicles. I myself typed a personal note (for my eyes only) on the visit. I had not been impressed by the set-up. 64a13 .

Later that same week, on Thursday 16th, I paid my first visit to Signals Research & Development (SRDE), Christchurch. I journeyed down on the 15th and after spending an uncomfortable night at the local hotel I called on a Mr. S.H. Bowers and had a long discussion on synthesiser measurements. I also the met one Z.M. Wiatr, who was newly in charge of the Test Equipment Group, and raised with him the question of MATE. He said M.I. was unlikely to get a MATE contract - he considered measurement companies to be peripheral to any proposals to meet the requirements. I countered his arguments. Later, I got to know him quite well in connection with MATE.

Another contact was E.R. Frost, a calibration man who I saw as having something of the conceptualiser within him struggling to get out - I do not think his colleagues appreciated this inate quality. Moreover he was, like me, enthusiastic about transformer ratio arm bridges. 64a16 . 46 years later I found myself seated next to him at lunch at Mark Masons' Hall, St.James's Street!

On Friday 17th January 1964 Sir Gordon Radley, a Director of the English Electric Group and Chairman of M.I., visited M.I. accompanied by Rt. Hon. Lord Hill of Luton, Chairman of the Independent Television Authority and former 'Radio Doctor'. I found myself seated next to Lord Hill at lunch and we had a very stimulating conversation. Later I got to know Lord Hill quite well - for example I co-chaired with him an enquiry into local health services.

Was the visit by Sir Gordon and Lord Hill the reason for the extraordinary development the following Monday 20th? On that day, less than 3 weeks after the new appointments came into operation, R.E. Burnett called me into his office and asked me to change my terms of reference, i.e. to depart radically from the arrangement that had just been painstakingly and painfully arrived at. REB said I was too powerful a person and was rocking the boat. He wanted me to become a 'front' man, to develop relationships with and be active in Professional Institutions, Universities etc., examine and advise on new business fields etc. He wrote it all down in pencil on ruled paper as he spoke, then appealed to my sympathy by saying he was in a difficult position, would I help him etc. Sucker that I am, I said I would work for the time being to the new terms, on the understanding that the original arrangement would be restored when things improved.

The original of the terms of 20th January 1964 in R.E. Burnett's handwriting is undated but my secretary added the date when, later that day, she made typewritten copies.

1.	Technical or scientific front man. Universities, Government Research Establishments, Professional Institutions, Customer Research Labs., Exhibitions.
		a) Company image. b) Ensuring we are kept bang up to date. c) Recruiting and attracting good people.
2.	Organise work in the Lab. to bring new basic ideas and approaches for Design Engineering.
3.	Tied up with 2 sometimes - take on work for Government Departments or others. Conversely farm out work to Universities.
4.	Tied up with 2 - keep top management informed about action we should be taking regarding scientific trends which may affect our whole business. This varies from national policy trends towards peaceful advances as distinct from military, to the effect of micro miniaturisation. This will of course, affect production, and perhaps sales as well as engineering.

5.	The examination of new business fields.

The first 4 clauses of my new terms of reference were research orientated - they mirrored the functions of Dr. E. Eastwood. Clause 5, added seemingly as an afterthought and below a line, opened up the fields of business and its component product policy. I therefore entered into minuted discussions on product policy with Arthur Wray. 64a22 . 64a28 . We then together had a discussion with Ray Burnett. I continued on the same theme by issuing Product Policy Note No.7 on What is a Right Product?

On 24th January I received a raise in salary. Salary had not been discussed in the negotiations - the issue had been one of function (which had already been set at nought). REB raised my salary by £210 to £2850pa, in view of my Research Manager appointment & responsibility for future products.

On 3rd February I issued a notice about the Research Department, listing my staff. The number I had been given since my appointment as Research Manager was 070: previously it had been 470, the 400 series being allocated to the Engineering Department. REB was 010 so Research was regarded as part of M.D.'s Department.

Meanwhile I had received an invitation to become a member of a Microminiaturisation Committee consisting of Sir Gordon Radley (in the Chair), Eric Eastwood, L.H. Bedford of B.Ae., I.G. Cressell of Baddow, and myself. Its purpose was to determine E.E. Group policy on microelectronics. We met at English Electric House on 19th February and I remember turning up to find myself alone with Sir Gordon. We exchanged a few pleasantries and he then asked if I took the Financial Times. He seemed well satisfied when I said I did, but only on Saturdays.

When the meeting got under way I found I was the only one asking questions about the financial viability of proposals being put forward by Ian Cressell.

A week later Dr. Eric Eastwood visited me at his request. I remember having on my desk a copy of his book on the radar discovery of bird migration patterns. He remarked on it with pleasure. I had not deliberately put it there but may have done so sub-consciously - perhaps he thought I was being a good politician. We chatted about various technical matters and I think it was then that he asked me to go with him to see L.H. Bedford at B.Ae., Stevenage.

Another visit which took place around this time was Prof. H.E.M. Barlow, who had recently been appointed to the M.I. Board, He came to learn about the business and was accompanied by Sir Gordon Radley.

Around this time Ray Burnett instructed me on one of the ways in which he operated. He described his method of communicating, in which he sent messages to individuals and received messages from them while keeping them isolated from each other. It was, he said, rather like having people in a number of telephone kiosks with two-way communication from each kiosk to a central operator and no direct communication from one kiosk to another. In this way he is able to control the behaviour of a group. As he spoke, he drew a diagram on his blackboard.

I told Ray Burnett about the Griffin & George offer after I had declined. I had not told him earlier as I did not want it to be regarded or used a lever to my own progression in M.I.

On Friday morning, 28th February 1964, I attended a Management meeting with R.E. Burnett about the Company results for 1963 to date. The following Monday, 2nd March, D.R. Willis, a senior engineer in the Commercial Department, asked for a highly confidential meeting with me about his ambitions. 64c02 . I wondered if it was to get me thinking about my own career.

Later that day I received a letter from R.E. Burnett giving me a surprise bonus of £100 even though 1963 company results had been disappointing.

I was becoming aware of the sophisticated methods of man-management at M.I. and I think it may have occurred to me the next day that the rise was to boost my morale at a meeting at which I might encounter George Bosworth. On that day, 3rd March, I went with A.G. Wray to a Federation of British Industry (FBI) Conference of Industrialists (FBI & DSIR) on Design in the Engineering Industry. Essentially it was on the Feilden Report. G.S. Bosworth was one of the speakers, Quintin Hogg another.

M.I. was very proficient at getting material into the public domain when it wanted to. On 12th March 1964, for example, there was a European Press visit. This may have been the occasion when two reporters from Hungarian Radio recorded an interview with me. They were given ready access to me at M.I. and I thought nothing of responding to their questions. Later a Marconi security officer named Keating told me I should not have given the interview - he said the recording would be sent to Moscow where a study would be made of every inflection and nuance of such an outstanding man as myself.

Around this time I was asked to write a short item giving my views on Measurement. I was surprised to find this appeared in the form of an interview with photo in the 1st April 1964 issue of Product Design Engineering.

On the next page there were similar presentations of the views of L.B.S. Golds of Eastern Electricity & P. Vigoureux of NPL. 64d01

I attended some of the many events taking place at IEE's Savoy Place H.Q., such as Divisional Board meetings, Lectures, Dinners, Cocktail Parties, Papers and Programme Committee, regarding them now as well within my remit from Ray Burnett. Indeed, when my wife, Sheila, accompanied me to a Dinner I sometimes used the services of a chauffer-driven Company car to take her and collect us after the event.

With a significance which I did not recognise until later Ray Burnett espoused the method of influencing people inside an organisation by getting people outside the organisation to make statements, write letters etc. which reflect the point of view the insider wants to get across. He added that his friend F.E. Jones used this technique, without letting it be known that he was the instigator.

From early in April there was an interesting bonding exercise. Ray Burnett invited senior managers to have their photos taken at company expense. He had chosen a well-known portrait photographer, Walter Bird FIBP, FRPS of 49 Queens Gate, S.W.7, and each manager was to make his own arrangement for the sitting. For two or three weeks there was much discussion over coffee in the Conference room about individual experiences in having the photos taken. The photo taken of me is the one captioned Plumpcat HVB, 1964 on the Introduction page of this website.

On 29th April 1964 there was an M.I. Open Day & Technical Press visit. I think this is the one to which George Gainsborough came at my invitation.

The following day there was a Technical Committee meeting. There had been much anxious preparation initiated by REB beforehand. The meeting was attended by Sir Gordon Radley, Professor H.E.M. Barlow, Dr. E. Eastwood, REB, HVB, AGW and WAGB. I continued as Secretary. After the meeting Dr. E. Eastwood came to see me in my office, probably to talk about MATE.

Through most of 1964 I was regularly involved in the 'Paul Jones' searching for partner companies with which to bid for a MATE contract.

Microminiaturisation was an essential feature of the MATE requirement so soon after my attendance at Sir Gordon Radley's meeting on that topic I circulated Product Policy Note No.8 : Microminiaturisation and then discussed it with S.G. Spooner & A.G. Wray.

From March to August 1964 there were exchange visits between M.I. and BAC, Stevenage, which under A.G. Hayes, a Mr. Slater and a Mr. Catterack had carried out some work on Automatic Testing. Dr. E. Eastwood (an enthusiastic supporter of MATE) accompanied R.E. Burnett and myself on one of the visits to BAC. In due course BAC opted to associate with another company in the MATE bidding.

Other companies I visited in connection with MATE were Solartron (July), Wayne Kerr (August). There were also many exchange visits to and from Marconi at Great Baddow (Dr. Forte, Mr. Wignall, Mr. B. Preston, and Mr. Stokes) and from the Chelmsford site (Mr. Morgan & Mr. Cufflin, Mr. Morcom).

I stayed in New York at a hotel booked by Max Impey, who worked in Marconi's NY office. In the course of the visit I told Max Impey I did not quite know what Ray Burnett wanted me to do and that I was hanging on hoping he would make up his mind. Max spoke very highly of Ray Burnett and said that as his Personal Assistant he had learnt a great deal from him.

A few days after my return on 27th June I circulated a report on my visit together with another report entitled Computer Aided Design (CAD) at MIT, which arose out of discussions with Prof Baumann during my visit. A handwritten note to myself on the CAD report says I wrote to Dr. E. Eastwood about CAD in the USA and also about English Electric or Marconi subscribing to MIT. The note continues that Dr. E.'s assistant seemed anxious that I should not discuss it with Dr. E. direct.

On 10th September 1964 I had a visit from Dr. Percy Dunsheath and a nephew of his. Dr. Dunsheath had written saying that Lord Nelson of Stafford had suggested that he should visit me at Marconi Instruments with his nephew to ask advice about the nephew's career prospects. I arranged the visit, which included lunch in the Managing Director's dining room and as Ray Burnett and Bill Brian were on holiday I presided. After a brief discussion with the nephew I handed him over to the Personnel Manager for more detailed discussion while I showed Percy Dunsheath over the Longacres site. At the end of the visit Percy Dunsheath said, with considerable emphasis, that he was pleased to see how well fixed up I was at M.I. I was pleased both at the renewal of contact and that Lord Nelson had been the instigator.

On 14th July a News Release was circulated at M.I. announcing the appointment of J. Brodrick as Commercial Manager with effect from 1st August.

On 1st August John Brodrick started as Commercial Manager of M.I. I had discussed the type of person needed with A.G. Wray and R.E. Burnett but was not consulted in the actual appointment of a person. One of the criteria I had strongly advocated was that if he was to play a useful part in the formulation of product policy the Commercial Manager should have had experience of instruments. Brodrick had not. A likeable personality and suitable for Sales Manager but not Commercial Manager of an instrument company in the full sense. Brodrick was not in a position to make product judgements and in effect he became a more powerful voice for the existing commercial viewpoints. His terms of reference overlapped my own; indeed, some time later I had to send a Memo to J. Brodrick about the interface between my "new business fields" brief & his market research. 64k20 .

The September 1964 issue of Marconi companies and their people - the House Magazine - gave news of J. Brodrick's appointment and also of the appointment of G.H. Scott as Assistant Works Manager. 64i00

Meanwhile, on 15th July, F.S. Barton had visited M.I. He was a former senior civil servant and a Director of Hewlett Packard UK, Mullard and Painton Companies. I knew him well at the IEE and he had requested me to arrange the visit. Ray Burnett and I showed him over the Company and he was entertained to lunch. Afterwards I received a letter from Freddie Barton saying how much he had enjoyed the visit and asking me to tell Ray Burnett. He added that he had suggested to Hewlett Packard that REB and I should be invited to visit them.

The visit to Hewlett Packard at Bedford with Ray Burnett took place on 21st September. On the way, Ray Burnett got in the front passenger seat of the car with the chauffer and made it clear that he did not wish to talk to me. There was nothing remarkable about the visit itself. The visit had repercussions shortly after I left M.I. and around the same time Freddie Barton said he often did favours for the Chairman of Marconi Company, who by then was Neil Sutherland.

On 7th October there was a meeting of the Technical Committee. Sir Gordon Radley, E. Eastwood and Prof. Barlow were present along with the Burnett, Wray, Garthwaite, myself and for the first time Brodrick - the Commercial Manager had not previously been a member of the Technical Committee. Before the meeting I had, at his request, briefed the non-technical John Brodrick about the Committee. I continued as Secretary.

Towards the end of the meeting, the question of the size of the market for a particular instrument came up. I gave some results of enquiries I had made but Ray Burnett immediately poured cold water on them and said Brodrick would be providing accurate figures. Walking away from the meeting afterwards, Burnett paid a quick compliment to me on another topic.

It was this incident that opened my eyes to the R.E. Burnett's manipulative techniques in respect of the Board. He knew that I knew far more about the instrument market than Brodrick (at that time at any rate) but he was passing Brodrick off as a man who had that knowledge. His intervention was to preserve the images he had created and his later compliment was by way of compensation. It was very neatly done but it was this incident more than any other, that brought the realisation that the M.D. was a dissimulator, building images and a sort of wall of deceit by the selective presentation or omission of information.

From 22nd to 24th October, at the time of the OktoberFest, I went to an International Symposium on Microelectronics in Munich. I went with one of my staff, C.J. Davison & a Marconi man, Fedida. A picture was taken of the 3 of us at a session. At my request C.J. Davison wrote an article on the Symposium for J.Sci.Inst., which was published on pp61-62 of the February 1965 issue. 64j22

During 1964, in my function as Research Manager I kept in touch with many former colleagues as well as organisations with which I had been involved in the past.

Former colleagues included E.H.K. Dibden, P.E.K. Donaldson, Norman Rider, Dr. A.J. Gilbert (re geophysical instruments), Dr. S Evans of the Scott Polar Institute (who had been one of my practical class Demonstrators) and Dr. C.J. Adkins (another of my Demonstrators). The organisations included the Society for the Application of Research, meeting in Cambridge. I was also well-received at my old Physics Department at King's College London, among other things having a good discussion on practical class work. 64d03 .

Among Industry events I attended are a British Institute of Management Seminar, an Electronic Engineering Association (EEA) Lunch, a British Standards Institution (BSI) TLE/8/5 Committee (which I got out of a.s.a.p. as I regarded the codifying of existing practice as having a stultifying effect on the new), the IEA Exhibition and the Air Show at Farnborough, where Marconi had a Stand.

I also visited E.E. Leo at Park Royal Road to see Pinkerton & Headley (ex Cavendish) about Research & Product Planning and later, in the company of Arthur Wray and E.A. Rea-Palmer, the Home Sales Manager, a visit was paid to a Mr. Smith at Plessey, Ilford.

In addition to visits from J.R. Thompson from Hatfield College of Technology, their Mr. Kirton from Hatfield College came to see me about Research and Management Studies. Later I was to get to know Mike Kirton quite well.

Two Government scientists I met regularly were Ian Harris of EID, Harefield, and Donald Woods of the Ministry of Aviation, the latter liking to be taken to a good lunch at Scott's Window Room, Simpson's in the Strand or as my guest at a SIRA Luncheon at the Connaught. Other Government Establishment contacts were Mr. Pym, Mr. Uffleman & Mr. Wells of FVRDE who came to M.I. and a Dr. Moss, who I visited at RAE Farnborough.

My secretary wrote entries in my diary and, in view of what transpired later, two for July 1964 were of particular interest - on 1st July, a "Mr. Vasiliev of the USSR Chamber of Commerce visiting the factory" and on the 7th "See Lord Bowden about liaison between business and teaching in Russia. Dr. Penley" - the latter entry was no doubt due to a phone call from Dr. Penley in my absence. It was not a matter I had raised with Dr. Penley so I did not follow up.

Gradually my position as Research Manager had worsened. My budget was cut and there was a restriction on recruitment. I discovered that some clandestine evening meetings of REB, MS & AGW had been going on - my inclusion in such management meetings had been part of the agreement reached between AGW and myself, which had received REB's blessing. Staff had been filched from me by the Engineering Department although before they left they had changed their minds but I insisted that they should go because I had agreed their transfer with Wray and I wanted to encourage integrity. Then REB said he didn't know what some of the words in the agreement meant. Finally he said he couldn't remember the agreement.

Mick Spooner told me that he had pointed out to Ray Burnett that I should be present at the management meetings and that his comment had been ignored.

I had told R.E. Burnett that I definitely wished to leave the Company since we were incompatible. I suggested we approach George Bosworth jointly with a view to finding me another job in the English Electric Co. Mr. Burnett agreed but asked if our meeting could be postponed for two weeks. In the two weeks he forestalled me by approaching Mr. Bosworth on his own account so that when I did get to see Bosworth I got nowhere with him.

Ray Burnett then contacted, without my permission, two top executives in other instrument Companies (Richard Foxwell and George Whipple, who I knew well) and said I might wish to work for them. I wrote to them and disassociated myself from REB's action. 64k00 64k09 .

On 5th November Richard Foxwell, M.D. of Wayne Kerr, wrote "Ray Burnett anticipated your letter by one day, but it did little to cushion the shock". He said he was off to the USA and asked me to lunch with him on 18th November.

On 27th November George Whipple replied saying he fully appreciated my point of view & referring to my December article on Electronics Design.

There may have been another interpretation of REB's actions, namely he was signalling that I was level-pegging with the Chairman/M.D. functions of the other companies. If that was his intention it completely misfired - I was fed up with hints of high office which did not translate into some progress along that path.

I now started casting around for a job on my own account by writing on 10th November to Prof Oatley about a post in an educational institution to research and teach design. 64k10 . I received by return a full and thoughtful reply. 64k12 .

Around this time Mick Spooner told me that one M.I. employee had left the Company under unusual circumstances and was threatening to sue. I was obviously expected to comment so I registered my disapproval of settling matters by legal action.

Within an hour or two R.E. Burnett made the same point and my reaction was the same. R.E. Burnett pointedly added that he had seen Counsel tie people up in knots under cross examination in court and made them look very silly.

Towards the end of October 1964, Richard Foxwell M.D. of Wayne Kerr had invited me to join a SIMA Working Party on National Standards - of the electrical, not the behavioural, variety. Other members included Fischbacher of SIRA, Ian Ross, Donald Woods & George Whipple. 64j26 . In the morning of 18th November I attended my first meeting.

The attendance at the IEE Divisional Meeting What is Measurement? on 18th November 1964 was a phenomenal 410! There was a very lively discussion, one of the unexpected contributors being George Gainsborough, IEE Secretary, who drew on his experience at NPL 64k18 . The meeting was followed by a Council Club Dinner to which Ray Burnett came as my guest and sat next to me at top table. I contributed at the anecdote stage with a few remarks about my Managing Director measuring me and about the What Is Whisky? legal proceedings and Royal Commission back in 1906-8.

Publication in Proc IEE of J.F. Fulford paper on Sampling Waveform Generation (he was kind enough to acknowledge my help). 64l00

Letter from Tom Allen of MIT re his paper on the Problem Solving Process in Engineering Design to be presented at February 1965 Conference on Electronics Design.

I and Marcel Bichera were collected by company car after the meeting and taken to Harpenden. I had met Marcel Bichera at Boulder in June. He stayed overnight at Pea Hen.

1100 I visited the Royal Radar Establishment (RRE) at St. Andrews Road, Malvern. I was well received by Dr. E.V.D. Glazier.

1000 Technical Committee meeting. Sir Gordon Radley commended me on the shorter Minutes I had produced of the previous meeting - those for the earlier meetings had been too detailed.

1030 IEE Committee on Electronics Design. Progressing the February Conference. 64l14

1100-1230 A visit to M.I. by 20 Marconi people (some doubt about the date). This was probably the occasion when Neil Sutherland, Marconi's Managing Director, came into my office and after greeting me with “I am glad to meet the wonder boy at last”, said I would be interested to know that he had sat next to HRH The Duke of Edinburgh at a Dinner and that Prince Philip had asked how Design was doing.

Much later, when I heard that Neil Sutherland was a Freemason and that for a while Prince Philip had also been a member of a Masonic Lodge, I wondered if that was how they came to dine together. However, later still, I was given to understand by Tommy Langham Thomson that the occasion Neil Sutherland had referred to was an Inaugural Dinner in connection with the Ministry of Defence.

Just before Christmas, R.E. Burnett asked me to show him over the Research Department. During the tour he was highly critical of the work we were doing and went out of his way to pour scorn on the efforts of my Committee on Electronics Design. He had clearly set out to be as offensive as possible.

I carried out an analysis of M.I. issues. In the case of R.E. Burnett I listed the things that bothered me under the headings Coercion, Dissimulation and Broken Promises. 64l28

A critical day. The methods of working which R.E. Burnett was trying to teach me were anathema to me. I had twice tried a completely open approach to getting a transfer to another part of the English Electric Group but was blocked by Ray Burnett by devious means on both occasions. Job applications I had made to other companies had been undermined while without my permission my services been offered to other companies. Over the past year I had been alternately cajoled and spurned in M.I., culminating in a strong attack on my Research efforts in M.I. and my Design activities in the IEE. These are the circumstances in which I wrote to Sir Gordon Radley, saying that my position at M.I. was intolerable and asking for job in Marconi Co.