Marconi Instruments - 1965 Diary and Notes (Jan-Sep)

One thought that was on my mind on New Year Day 1965 was what kind of response would I get from Sir Gordon Radley to the letter I had sent him 3 days before. I had written to him out of desperation at the dire situation that had developed at M.I. over the past year.

Outside M.I. things were going well. The second of my articles entitled Electronics Design, which gave the background to the February Conference, was published in the January issue of IEE News. A leaflet which included a Registration Form for the Conference on Electronics Design, due to take place on 8th and 9th February, was widely distributed.

I had been invited to go on an English Electric Management Course for the week beginning Monday 4th January but in view of all my other commitments I had not booked.

I carried out my functions at M.I. to the best of my ability. Thus on 6th January there was a meeting on Very Low Frequency Instruments, a product field I considered M.I. should enter.

On 7th January, having decided that I would not put all my eggs in the Marconi/English Electric basket, I wrote to a Mr. M. Epstein of Electronics Appointments Ltd., referring to a conversation some time before and asking him to approach companies on my behalf. 65a07 . I also wrote to Dr. Marcel Bichera in Paris saying there were various changes in the offing so I would defer replying to his request for a job for 2 or 3 weeks. 65a08 .

On Saturday 9th January Sir Gordon Radley phoned me at home. He asked me what the trouble was - was it Company policy? I replied it was more like Product Policy and would not say any more - I did not understand enough about the behavioural aspects of management to explain what was going on and I was determined not to criticise individuals. He asked if I minded him showing the letter to Dr. Eastwood and I said "no", as long as it was kept strictly confidential. I said I would like a job at Marconi's. He told me not to do anything rash and that he would send for me. I remember I was choked up with something like fear during the conversation.

On Monday 11th, after the Electronics Design meeting at the IEE I called at the nearby English Electric House to see Mr. Large, the Company solicitor, about the legal aspects of the Consortium I was setting up to compete for a MATE contract which ultimately could lead to the supplying of £100m worth of automatic test equipment to the Army. I wanted the agreement to be in plain language. Mr. Large met that requirement pretty well.

I departed at mid-day on the 12th for the Marconi Company at Great Baddow. I was chauffer-driven and crammed some MATE work in both ways. My visit to Baddow was probably to see Ian Cressell about a special semiconductor device for incorporation in an instrument being designed in my Research Department.

This was probably the occasion when Ian Cressell remarked that having a grapevine with contacts at lowish levels was how a Chairman of a Company kept himself informed of what was going on. It was clear that he was asked to make this point to me but who, I wondered, did the asking and for what purpose?

In the evening of 14th January (our 15th Wedding Anniversary) Sheila and I were entertained to supper by the Brodricks in their temporary accommodation at 100 Charmouth Road, St. Albans.

On Wednesday 20th I attended a meeting of the SIMA (Scientific Instrument Manufacturers Association) Working Party, which was examining the possibility of establishing a calibration service. Other members present were Richard Foxwell, George Whipple, Ian Ross and one or two members of the Ministry of Technology. Notes on a meeting with a Mr. Wildhack about a similar service in the USA were considered. 65a20 .

On 23rd January I widened my area of job search by writing to Sir Nevill Mott at Gonville & Caius College asking if he would be a referee for a Chair of Electronic Engineering at Hull. 65a23 . Later in the day Jennie (10) went to a party for children at M.I.

On 26th January at a meeting of IEE Professional Group E1 at Savoy Place, which I chaired, J.F. Fulford, formerly of M.I. but now of SRDE, was put forward for a Marconi Premium for his paper on VLF Waveform Generation using the Sampling Technique. Also, J.R. Thompson agreed to produce an edited version of the transcript of the What Is Measurement? meeting held on 18th November 1964. 65a26 . In the afternoon I chaired an open IEE meeting. For some reason this was the start of correspondence with Al Holtz of DIT MCO re Automatic Test Equipment. 65a26 .

On the 29th, the last working day of January, there was a meeting of M.I.'s Product Policy Committee meeting at M.I. This was probably the one at which I fought and won my case for the CRO programme - but it was a hollow victory, probably due (from what I heard much later) to a leakage to M.I. of my strictly confidential letter to Sir Gordon Radley.

A colleague on the Commercial side asked if I would be visiting Germany on a particular date about two months ahead. It was a particularly interesting query because I had pencilled "Germany" in my desk diary from 31st March to 3rd April 1965. Also, my colleague was in the Home Sales Department and Germany was not within the territory for which he was responsible. I may have made the entry to test if my desk diary, which was readily accessible in my unlocked office, was being scrutinised by colleagues outside the Research Department. I called such interrogations "probe questioning".

R.E. Burnett registered as a participant but I only saw him at the Cocktail Party.

Eric Eastwood once told me that although he didn’t fully agree with my approach to Design he had nevertheless spoken favourably about it to his people at Great Baddow.

On 2nd February 1965 I had a meeting with Roly Friend of the Ministry of Aviation about MATE. I wanted to know if the M.I. Consortium would be likely to get one of the Feasibility Study contracts even if we asked for payment for the effort entailed. Other Consortia were so keen to get a contract that they were putting in 'no charge' bids. I got from Roly Friend a nod and a wink that we certainly would get a contract. It was my first experience of receiving a definite message from a civil servant without anything being said! That evening, after an IEE Lecture, I met D. Rodgers of Honeywell Controls and R. Foxwell of Wayne Kerr and told them about the favourable indirect communication.

On 15th February the Consortium held a meeting in the 4th Floor Conference Room at E.E. House. On March 2nd Burnett, Brodrick, Wray and myself conferred about MATE in preparation for a meeting the following day with Phil Garberich, Dick Robinson, and R. Rodgers, all of Honeywell. The shape of the Consortium was emerging but as yet no agreement had been drawn up.

M.I. was to be the main contractor and Marconi, Honeywell and Wayne Kerr were designated as sub-contractors. Honeywell stipulated that it would only join the Consortium if the Project Manager was one of its people from the USA. In these circumstances, to exercise control, I got myself appointed Project Director and Chairman of the Consortium Coordinating Committee and the leader of the M.I. team was appointed Deputy Project Manager. Later, I also formed and chaired an Editorial Panel to oversee the Report which went to the Ministry of Aviation. The Project Manager submitted sections of the Report as they were written and the Editorial Panel altered them as necessary. The Project Manager was not a member of the Coordinating Committee nor of the Editorial Panel. He was, however, present at the Project Director's meetings.

By early March, Sir Gordon Radley had not sent for me as he had promised and I was still determined to get out of M.I. I had correspondence with Tyzack, the recruitment agency, about General Manager and Technical Director appointments. The latter was with Rank Bush Murphy - I entered into discussions with them but declined their offer as the Technical Director post did not have what to me was vital if the job was to be done properly, namely a seat on the Board. 65c11 . A few days later I met Harry Sellers of Tektronix UK (ex M.I.) to explore the possibility of a job with them but nothing came of it. In late March I wrote to Marcel Bichera saying things were still unsettled and I could not therefore act on his request for a job with me.

Shortly after I had applied for a post at one electronics company, a friend from schooldays who worked at that Company, turned up unexpectedly at my house and said in effect how well set up I was and how he didn't like it too much where he was. A later encounter gave some support to the thought that he was acting as an intermediary.

By the end of March 1965, after many meetings with individuals and of the Consortium and other committees, an agreement had been drawn up and signed by the 4 companies, the Feasibility Study contract had been awarded, the Project team had been briefed by Wiatr and Frost of S.R.D.E. and work had started.

During April and May work went ahead steadily. I took part in a number of meetings and visits, some of them with Phil Garberich, the Project Manager. I also visited Arborfield as well as Smiths Aviation which had expressed an interest in the Consortium's work. I also made notes on my career and made jottings on MATE, including MATE report headings, partly in preparations for meeting with Arms about MATE 65e00 .

In connection with MATE, R.E. Burnett said I should set up a reporting network. He said I should get everyone who makes a visit or makes contact with an interested party to report back views, attitudes, comments, interests etc. to one person, that person to circulate members of the team with extracts as appropriate.

One visit I did not go on was in late May, namely a tour of Army units of the B.A.O.R. which had been organised by the Ministry for one person from each of the four Consortia carrying out the Feasibility Studies. I had decided to see the MATE project through to the end, which was estimated to be by the end of July and indeed had set a deadline of 4th August to find myself another job. Under these circumstances I felt I could not go on the B.A.O.R. visit - it would be better that someone who would be staying at M.I. to take part. I therefore sent D. Bissett, the M.I. MATE team leader, in my stead.

At one stage I encountered very strong opposition within M.I. to the MATE project. However, Eric Eastwood made known his strong support and the feasibility study was completed as per contract.

Having decided to leave M.I. come what may when the MATE project was completed I went out of my way to get experience in areas I was not good at, for example public speaking and lecturing. Thus when I was invited by George Bosworth to be a member of an Brains Trust panel answering questions from English Electric managers I gladly accepted. The Brains Trust quizzing took place at Dunchurch Lodge on 25th March with George Bosworth one of the other panellists. The topic on which questions were asked was on Training.

I acquitted myself quite well and saw the event as another step in my self-development, which would help equip me for another job. It was quite some time before I realised George Bosworth had intended it as one of his encouraging signs to me.

We now come to a critical two weeks in my time at M.I. Around 1st April 1965 T. Eiloart of CCL wrote to me asking if M.I. would be interested in purchasing the designs for a range of low-priced instruments. He had, a few days before, appeared on BBC Television criticising British instrument manufacturers for not taking up his company's brilliant designs. CCL, he said in the programme, would probably have to sell them to an American company.

When I reported CCL's approach to R.E. Burnett, he said "so you have heard from them?" and suggested we both pay them a visit. I advised against this on the grounds that CCL might use the visit or aspects of it in a manner detrimenta1 to M.I. It was agreed that I should make a visit to see what the instruments were like. The visit was fixed for 9th April.

On Monday 5th April I had a meeting with R.E. Burnett. He told me that the rumour about the appointment of Dr. H.S. Arms was correct. This was a surprise - the rumour hadn't reached me. REB went on to say that only Lord Nelson's final approval and arrangements for release from present duties remained. H.S. (Shull) Arms would be Technical Director with executive responsibility covering research and engineering. He was an eminent physicist who would be able to introduce better staff into the Company and build it up to a £10m turnover. He would be influential in obtaining funds from the E.E. Group, particularly for research projects. REB went on to say that careers would be unaffected. Dr. Arms would be visiting the company on 9th April and he had asked to see a number of people, including me. 65d05 .

The following morning, Mr. Keating (Marconi Chelmsford's Security Officer) came to M.I. to brief me about MATE security. The MATE project, being concerned with the latest Army equipment was classified as Secret so it was important to put the approved conditions in place.

REB's announcement to me the previous day about the appointment of H.S. Arms was carried out in a particularly insulting fashion and prompted me to write the following note, which was typed by my secretary. I did not send it but I did show it to Wray. 65d06 .

On 7th April I attended a SIMA WP , attended by leading figures in the instrument industry.

Afterwards I went to the IEE, the activities there culminating in chairing a lecture by I.A. Harris. I have a note for the 8th April that I was due to attend the Physics Exhibition ion Manchester and to write a 1/2K-word article by 3 May and then to meet E. Garthwaite in the evening. I do not remember what actually happened.

In the morning of Friday 9th April I visited T. Eiloart at CCL, Cambridge, was entertained to lunch and examined their instruments. I was not impressed with their design. They were very amateurish. CCL had no idea of designing for production and their market knowledge was in effect limited to a few University Departments. However, some of the performance figures claimed, both technical and economic, were interesting and I suggested we should help them prove their claims. CCL was short of equipment such as CROs so that the instruments could not be demonstrated.

Meanwhile M.I. was being visited by Shull Arms, the physicist who worked as an engineer at E.E. Whetstone. As I was among those he asked beforehand to see, I hurried back from CCL. I told him of my wish to leave M.I.

Shull Arms was powerfully built and had a deep American voice. He is listed by the Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity as Shull Arms (Idaho), recipient of a Rhodes Scholarship in 1936. He was shown in the English Electric staff list as attached to E.E. Head Office as well as Whetstone.

The following Monday, 12th April, I took a day's leave and met Richard Foxwell for lunch, to discuss job prospects. The following day Phil Garberich of Honeywell came to see me at M.I. in connection with MATE.

On Wednesday 14th April Dr. E.V.D. Glazier visited me at M.I. about a scheme I had been advocating, namely U.K. Industry cooperation in producing a range of oscilloscopes to compete with Tektronix. In the afternoon I attended a meeting of the IEE Papers & Programme Committee. It was also on this day that Jill, my secretary, married a man from East Germany. I did not think to inform R.E. Burnett as Security Officer for M.I. or Keating of Marconi, Chelmsford. REB later rightly admonished me for not doing so. However, I think I am right in saying that no Secret papers were kept in my office, it having been decided that the team leaders in the four companies would keep such papers secure.

A Technical Committee meeting scheduled for 14th April was cancelled. David Marples came to lunch on that day on IEE Electronics Design business.

At a PPC meeting on Thursday 15th April REB announced the appointment of Dr. S.H. Arms as Technical Director of M.I.

To complete the list of activities and events in that turbulent first fortnight of April 1965, in the afternoon of 5th April, immediately after R.E. Burnett had told me about the possible appointment to M.I. of H.S. Arms, I departed for Hatfield Technical College and from there with J.R. Thompson to Cheshunt for a meeting of his Fryerning Lodge. That day, too, Dr. M. Bichera wrote saying that he understood the delay in a possible job at M.I. and asking if I would propose or support his AMIEE application - the other supporter or proposer would be the Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Johannesburg. 65d05 .

Also, immediately after I had shown my Product Policy Committee note to A.G. Wray, I departed, a little late, for Great Offley to address a Hatfield College of Technology course followed by a Course Dinner, all organised by J.R. Thompson.

In the light of later understanding of behavioural practices it must be asked if any of those I met acted, wittingly or otherwise, as 'spotters'.

The doom and gloom in M.I. was somewhat offset by an event arranged by George Bosworth towards the end of April, namely a Design Seminar at Dunchurch Lodge. B.T. (Barry) Turner had visited me about Design. He had told me about the Dunchurch meeting and said he would see that I got an invitation. The Seminar was on the 28th and 29th April but I could only go for the first day. Participants were from all over the E.E. Group.

Bosworth seemed anxious to please me. By now I was considered as a something of a specialist in Design Processes and if George Bosworth had expected me to speak he must have been disappointed. He probably did not know the full ramifications of the events that had occurred at M.I. earlier in the month.

After taking up his post at M.I. and before buying a house nearby Shull Arms stayed at the Comet Hotel, Hatfield. Soon after arrival he invited me to come one evening to his room at the Comet Hotel and we shared a bottle of red wine while we chatted.

He said he had come to help me to survive. He added that I could do whatever I wished when I obtained supreme power but in the achieving of that power I had to act in a certain way. I must learn to knobble people etc. I was, he said, extremely valuable to the company.

Soon afterwards he said he liked travelling in planes with the Chairman and that I would soon be riding around in Rolls Royces.

I took these remarks with a pinch of salt.

In the context of Shull Arms's pronouncements it is interesting to note that Otto Frisch, in his autobiography What Little I Remember, writing about people he met in the early 1940s before his departure to Los Alamos to work on the atomic bomb says:-

The other person who sticks out in my memory was Shull Arms, a big lanky American from Idaho with the physique of a lumberjack; his huge hands were able to perform the most delicate operations, controlled by a very subtle brain.

Shull Arms may have been surprisingly nimble in his handling of mechanisms but as will be seen he was extremely crude in his handling of people. He adopted a mixture of encouraging comments and what might now be called psychological 'shock and awe' techniques - which certainly produced shock but, far from awe, they aroused in me utter revulsion and a determination to resist them at all costs.

I continued my battle for VLF instrumentation, e.g. I put to the PPC proposals for a VLF Generator, a Sutcliffe analyser and an Army servo tester etc but got nowhere.

Incidentally, Harry Sutcliffe, who was now our consultant, was an expert on fluidised beds - blowing air through sand causes it to behave like a liquid.

In May I had a letter from P.M. Clifford, referring to a speech by Sir Gordon Radley about buying British equipment and defending the purchase of USA equipment. Peter Clifford gave CROs as an example - he reflected my viewpoint exactly. A massive effort was needed to compete with Tektronix, which is why I proposed that U.K. instrument manufacturers should cooperate to produce a range of compatible plug-ins. It is interesting to note from its website that Hewlett Packard considered prevailing against Tektronix but dropped the idea.

I wrote and circulated more Product Policy Notes, No.9 being on Image Intensifiers and No.10 on the TF2006 Signal Generator, the latter prompting a meeting with John Brodrick to explore further. There were two Special PPC meetings on Development Order priorities. There was also a meeting with Rantzen (Marconi Chelmsford's Patent Agent) but I cannot recall what that was about.

The unsettling effect of R.E, Burnett's announcement about the appointment of S.H. Arms and my policy of disregarding mere hints, led me around 1st May to apply through M.S.L., another recruitment agency, for the post of Engineering Director at Muirhead. I was interviewed at M.S.L. and although I didn't quite fill the bill (my mechanical engineering experience was not enough) I was put forward as a special case. There were some extraordinary developments in the MATE project in connection with Muirhead and later in a personal offer to me by its Engineering Director.

On 20th May I had a conversation with REB which I noted immediately afterwards follows:- 65e20 .

In such circumstances my approach to my job was that while I was being paid a salary by M.I., I must give as good a value for money as was possible.

On 24th May a Memo was circulated about Departmental numbering. It contains a list of about 160 M.I. staff from the top down.

On 26th May I was driven by Richard Foxwell in his Jaguar to S.R.D.E. at Christchurch for a VIP Open Day. Among others I met Brigadier-General Sir Leonard Atkinson, who I was later to meet in connection with the 1968 Cambridge Conference on Electronics Design. Later still I was to encounter him in a Masonic Order. It was a good day. At some time Eric Eastwood told me he had put in a good word for me at S.R.D.E.

On the same day Lt-Col. Roy Knowles of the HQ Directorate of Electrical & Mechanical Engineering (Army) wrote to thank me for signing his application for transfer to MIEE grade & enclosing a CV. 65e26 .

To our usual round of entertainment of and being entertained by friends we added one or two of those associated with work - for example dinner with the Thompsons and my Sheila entertaining Sheila Brodrick to lunch. We did not entertain the Arms or vice versa - I had told him I was leaving and saw no reason to get to know him or them socially.

At the end of June 1965 I was approached by a Mr. Hawley of English Electric, Stafford, who asked my opinion of CCL. They had apparently heard of them and were thinking of placing an order with them for a £20,000 mobile measurement facility. I addressed my reply to Hawley but a Mr. A.P. Baines and one or two others were also in the picture so I sent copies of my reply to them.

I advised something to the effect that CCL were a bunch of bright chaps who unfortunately had little experience of production or marketing. Their resources might be inadequate to meet a £20,000 order. At the bottom of Hawley's copy I added that it might be worthwhile E.E. investing discreetly in them and injecting marketing and production know-how.

I thought the approach by English Electric Stafford rather odd at the time but it was among many other odd things that were happening and I had adopted a policy of treating everything on a strictly face-value basis.

The MATE activities continued, with about 2 meetings per week in St. Albans, London and Baddow requiring my presence Some weeks after I had been put me up for a job at Muirhead, a call had been received from that company enquiring about taking part in the MATE project. From the way this was announced I was a little suspicious but I had treated the enquiry as genuine and invited their Mr. Perrin & Mr. R.R. Wood to visit M.I. to explore what they had in mind.

A return visit was paid to Muirhead on 5th July to consider further their wish to be part of the M.I. MATE Consortium. I asked R. Foxwell to go with me. We had a good discussion of the issues but at one point I was very surprised when Richard Foxwell said quite seriously about me to the others "When he is Prime Minister".

I had a very brief opportunity to mention my application to their Sales Director but he hadn't heard of it. A few days later the sales director rang up and hinted that there might be an opening in his Department. I told him I wasn't interested.

The Coordinating Committee decided not to invite Muirhead to join the Consortium.

It was around this time that R.E. Burnett told me he had known for 7 months about my letter to Sir Gordon Radley. He then quoted a line from it exactly

Managing the Research Department continued to be one of my main occupations, with control of projects taking up most of my time and thought. In late June I was asked to prepare a budget for consideration in two weeks' time.

In mid-July Mr. R.C. Crafer (student son of the X-Ray Department head who had been killed close by in an industrial accident?) joined the Department and a month later he produced a Research Department Report on a project he had been given. A week later I sought and obtained from W.A.G. Brian, Company Secretary, authority for R. Crafer to have permanent ownership of something (unrecorded) he had produced.

I was frequently in the company of Richard Foxwell, mostly because of MATE. Thus on 29th July I lunched with him at the Institute of Directors, 10 Belgrave Square. Again on 16th August when he visited me at M.I. he accompanied me when I went into St. Albans to buy a radio for Sheila's birthday - he recommended a radio made by his friend Roberts but I went for shape and colour.

I had continued contact with the Research as well as the Manufacturers' sides of the Scientific Instruments industry by visiting the SIRA laboratories in Chislehurst (65d21) and attending the Annual Luncheon and AGM (65g15).

Around the beginning of July 1965 I was elected a member of Council of SIRA (Scientific Instrument Research Association). I knew my name had been put forward for election by Storey, the Managing Director of W.G. Pye, an instrument company in Cambridge - he telephoned me to say that he would be honoured if I would agree (which I did) - but as I had never met him I was intrigued to know how my nomination had come about. He told me someone had asked him to put me up but he wouldn’t say who.

In mid July 1965 I received a letter from the Secretary of SIRA requesting my details under Companies Act 1948 as I was now regarded as a Director.

I also received a SIRA Annual Report for 1964/65. 65g19 . There followed a list of Members of SIRA Council as requested.

If I was to stay at M.I. it was imperative that I should have easy access to members of the Board - this would in effect breach the "wall of deceit". To break the deadlock I proposed to Arms that I should be made a director. He supported this - but REB was swift and stinging in his vetoing of the proposal.

On 20th July, T. Eiloart & G. Edge (Technical Director) of Cambridge Consultants were due to visit me at M.I.. In the event T. Eiloart & A. Horne (Commercial Director of CCL) - not G. Edge - turned up. They came to see what sort of activities were involved in producing a commercial instrument and to 'sell' their consulting services.

On 28th July there was a visit to M.I. of Sir Harry Melville, Chairman of the Science Research Council. Shortly before lunch I gave him a tour of the Research Department and at lunch REB had seated me next to Sir Harry who was on the immediate right hand side of REB.

Another distinguished visitor around this time was the Chairman of Sud Aviation, a French company with which English Electric was closely associated. On this occasion I was seated at lunch next to Ray Burnett with the visitor immediately opposite.

Shull Arms invited a Dr. Wakeley of Whetstone to visit M.I. on 26th August but I do not remember meeting him on that occasion.

REB showed me a letter to him from R.V. Jones of Aberdeen about a Lecturer vacancy in Instrumentation and said I should apply for it. I said I was not interested.

There was a paper in the September 1965 issue of the IEE journal Electronics & Power (p316) by Sir Gordon Radley in which he announced that a Discussion on The selection of topics for research in electrical and electronic engineering would take place on 4th November. There would be four opening speakers, including Dr. E. Eastwood and Professor Sir Willis Jackson Sir Gordon's article struck more than one chord and I started thinking about what I would say in the Discussion.

Early in September, REB said I should apply for and would very likely obtain the post of Principal of Hatfield College of Technology. He added that the appointment had been deferred so that a man with an industrial background could be found and that he and John Coales, Governors of Hatfield College, would be involved in making the appointment. I sent for details of the post but did not follow it up.

In August there were about 10 MATE management meetings as well as a social occasion at which we entertained the Garbriches to a Sunday tea at our home. The 4th August deadline I had set myself for finding another job passed with much to do still on the MATE contract.

In September 1965 the finishing touches were put to the MATE project. Copies of the Report were received from the printers on 13th September and the main issue remaining was what figure to put on the cost of developing the equipment. It was at this point, around 20th September that Shull Arms wanted M.I. to give an estimate of cost which was a small fraction of the honest estimate. To meet to some extent this demand I proposed putting in two costs - one for proved technology which would be much cheaper but would have to be housed in a large truck and the other for a fully microminiaturised (an advanced and unknown technology at that time) for about 4 times the cost but which could be fitted in a Jeep. I wrote a Memo to this effect to Shull Arms.

Shull Arms invited me for a beer at a pub near M.I. We had a social chat but because I was resolved to get out of M.I. I did not get close to him. He told me he enjoyed the books of Thomas Mann - I got hold of one he recommended, was fascinated by it and gave him a commentary on the plot and what lay behind it. I invited Shull Arms to an IEE Dinner but he couldn't make it. Arms told me I was not a good enough politician.

Meanwhile a Dr. P.H. Klystra of Utrecht wrote thanking me for my help (whatever it was) regarding a paper published in Pergamon's Medical Electronics etc. 65i09 . I had also taken a week's holiday, during which time an advertisement had appeared in the Daily Telegraph inviting applications for the post of Assistant Secretary at the Ministry of Technology, to cover the field of Electronics. 65i16

It must have been on 20th September that R.E. Burnett asked me to come to his office. His main purpose was to tell me, pointedly, that J.D. Wickens was most ungrateful to him. The remark struck me as being very curious and out of context at the time. I noted REB's remark. J.D. Wickens the lecturer in sociology at Hatfield Technical College who had become the M.D.'s Personal Assistant, had left M.I. under peculiar circumstances. Ray Burnett had circulated a notice internally stating that Mr. W. had been appointed Operations Manager of the company, in control of all the day to day operations. Most of the managers then campaigned against the appointment with the result that within two weeks of the announcement, Mr. W. left the company for another appointment in the E.E. Group - a Personnel job found by the Ray Burnett.

I produced for H.S. Arms, at his request, a 1 foolscap page outline of plans for Research Department activities from September 1965 onwards, including staff, money and space estimates.

Following the visit by S.A. Gregory shortly after the Conference on Electronics Design I had been invited to present a paper and chair a session at a Design Method Symposium at the University at Aston, where Lord Nelson of Stafford had recently been made Chancellor. When on Tuesday 21st September I arrived at my hotel in Birmingham I discovered that J.D. Wickens was attending the Symposium as a delegate and was staying at the same hotel, in the room next to mine. I was very busy on the first day - my paper was programmed for the first session and I was due to chair the second session and after that I was to attend a dinner at the invitation of the conference organisers. When Mr. W. asked me to find time to talk to him, I arranged to have a drink with him before departing for my dinner appointment.

The session in which I gave my paper was chaired by Sir Frank (later Lord) Kearton and I must say I felt his complimentary remarks about me during his summing up were of the “didn’t he do well” variety, as though I had undergone some sort of test. F65i21 .

After chairing the second session I went to meet Jim Wickens. In the course of our conversation, Mr. W. told me pointedly that McKinsey and Co. had been surveying the E.E. Group and had made recommendations about appointments and promotions which would be announced in November. He drank to my success. He made disparaging remarks about Burnett and how he ought not to be running a Company. I told him I deplored his manipulation. J.W. said everybody could see through that. I said one can't do much about it. He said, apropos of nothing, that Garthwaites don't grow on trees and that Wray was the Mikoyan of Marconi Instruments. I had little doubt that R.E. Burnett's remark about J.W. being ungrateful to him was associated with this message-passing at the Symposium.

The McKinsey survey was news to me but I later connected it, probably correctly, with some University 'researchers' who had been sitting in on PPC meetings at M.I. and taking a keen interest in my sayings and doings.

At the morning session on Wednesday 22nd Mr. W. came and sat next to me and just before the session opened. he nodded towards the Chairman of the session (a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Aston) and made the cryptic remark "Beck for Chairman; the present chap only gets in the way". He could not have been referring to the particular Chairman of the session - it could only have been a message in 'grapevine' language.

Later in the morning Barry Turner, Head of the E.E. training college, came up to me planted another remark - he said, apropos of nothing, that he had been thrown out of a job by H.M. Matthews (E.E. Director of Engineering) and had been found another at short notice by George Bosworth, the E.E. Director of Personnel. He also said he had heard about my IEE Design during a visit to Marples.

First thing on my return to M.I., St. Albans on Friday 24th Septembers I had a meeting with S.H. Arms. I enquired of Arms if the revised MATE estimate met with his approval. He didn't object. He said a few things which I don't remember but a cryptic remark I did note was to the effect that I would soon be reporting to or taking the advice of Sir Gordon Radley.

When I got back to my office I learned from my secretary that Max Impey had visited M.I. while I had been at the Birmingham Symposium, had called in at my office and had been very insistent about seeing me. I had met Max Impey in New York on two or three occasions in 1962 to 64, where he was a resident member of staff at the Marconi office. He had been a Personal Assistant to REB for two or three years, before Jim Wickens. More recently I had met him at his sister's home in Harpenden. She was Mrs. Day and lived in Kirkwick Avenue. It was she who had told me that her Uncle, Neil Sutherland, Managing Director of Marconi, Chelmsford, had asked her to keep an eye out for me. I wrote and said I would see him. It did not occur to me until much later that R.E. Burnett might be using his former P.A.s - Wickens and Impey - as intermediaries.

Also that day, the Director of SIMA, F.D. Outridge, wrote about a meeting at the Institute of Directors on 6th October at 1000 with A.H.A. Wynn of the Ministry of Technology. The main topic was to be the setting up of a National Calibration Service. 65i24 .

On Monday 27th September, Arms called me into his office and told me he had been at a meeting of senior managers and it was his duty to tell me to find another job. His colleagues were extremely sorry and asked him to say this and to say that compensation would be paid. He would soon be leaving the country for about 10 days and if I had not found another job by the time he was back he would have to dismiss me. I told him there comes a point of no return in relationships and this appeared to have been reached with him. I probably at the time had some inkling that he was playing games but I had long since decided that I would treat everything at face value.

On Tuesday 28th September, I went with members of my Research Department to a Symposium on VLF instruments at E.E. Whetstone. Arms was there and in fact it emerged that he had played a major part in organising the event. Moreover it was highly supportive of my views about VLF instruments - he had in effect arranged that M.I. personnel should be influenced at Whetstone along the lines I had been advocating at M.I. Dr. A. looked appealingly at me on several occasions during the first day of the Symposium but I was in no mood to appreciate his efforts and indeed I did not attend the second day. I now see clearly that he was using the hot/cold/hot influence technique on 24/27/28 September respectively whereas at the time it was just instinct that made me resist responding to such practices.

On Wednesday 29th September, fed up with antics of REB and SHA, I phoned Bosworth, who fixed up for me to see him at 0900 on October 6th. This was the day of a Board meeting at Head Office, E.E. House and I had already received an invitation from Outridge of SIMA to attend a meeting at 1000 on that day at the Institute of Directors. Again I probably wondered if there was some linkage between the Bosworth and SIMA meetings in some way but I would have disregarded such a notion anyway.

I also that day wrote to the Civil Service Commission about Fellowships for research into Electronics Design (not on file).

There was a SIRA Council meeting on Thursday 30th September but I did not attend. The same day I received a letter from R. Foxwell about the SIMA meeting on 6th October notifying me of a change of venue to another address in Belgrave Square and listing acceptances, including Fischbacher, I.M. Ross, E.A. Rea-Palmer and G. Whipple. 65i30 . I wrote to Outridge of SIMA saying I would be attending on 6th October but regretting I would arrive half an hour late. 65i30 .

It was around this time that I was asked to go to Hawker Siddeley Dynamics at Hatfield about Automatic Test Equipment. HSD had been one of the four MATE teams (the others being my own M.I. team, a Plessey team and a ?????? team). The MATE submissions were all in the hands of the Ministry of Aviation so I had no qualms about agreeing to their request and went along one morning, alone, expecting to meet one or two people. In fact I found myself addressing and being questioned by about 40 people, some of whom had flown into the Hawker Siddeley airfield from other parts of the Company. I think I can say I fairly held my own against the throng.