Briefed John Davis and John Hammond on what had happened

On Sunday 13th February 1966, two days after my departure from M.I., John Davis and John Hammond, former colleagues at Cambridge Instruments and members of my Masonic Lodge, visited us.  I told John Hammond something of what had happened, as far as I understood it, and updated John Davis who already had some idea from a visit he paid to Marconi Instruments and  his presence at the dreadful IEE Measurement Dinner at the Cafe Royal some four weeks before.

From Day 1 met Marconi staff and intermediaries on IEE Committees

From the first working day after I left M.I., I kept meeting, on IEE committees and in IEE activities,  Marconi staff and others who had acted as intermediaries during my departure.  I resisted discussion of company matters but some seemed keen to put points to me, which I noted.  Thus, for example J.R. Thompson said someone would be having words with me at an IEE Board meeting I was due to attend.

I had a strong concept of role and confined myself to the professional matters in hand.

Support and surprising comments from John Coales

I had asked John Coales whether I stood any chance of getting the Deanship of the Royal Military College of Science - he was on the appointing body.  He advised me to go in for it and agreed to act as referee.

He also remarked that I was too high-powered a person for M.I. and asked why didn't I see Eric Eastwood?

Then he surprised me by saying  that the person appointed to the Principalship of Hatfield (N.Lindop) was a good chap but that I would have been better.  This was particularly interesting because some weeks before, Ray Burnett (M.D. of M.I.) had said he and John Coales, who were Governors of Hatfield Polytechnic, would get me the Principal's job.  I declined the offer - but clearly it had been discussed by the two Governors.

Amazing comment by David Marples after discussion re jobs

David Marples, was a member of my IEE Committee on Electronics Design.  He also knew the English Electric Group Director of Personnel, George Bosworth, well enough to call on him without an appointment and it was he who had telephoned me some three months before to say that Robert Telford was to be appointed General Manager of Marconi (which happened) while I was to be appointed General Manager of Marconi Instruments.  I disregarded all the previous history and discussed a Chair at Cranfield and also the possibility of working in his Department for a while.  He then came out with the amazing statement that my former employers had given me a sort of "rest" period covered by my six months salary.  It was a few months later that he said I had been involved in an great educational experiment which had failed. 

Disaster at IEE Board meeting

Meanwhile my IEE activities at its Savoy Place HQ were going disastrously wrong - for example, at an Electronics Divisional Board meeting, a paper of mine laid on the table by the Divisional Secretary, had to be withdrawn because of numerous typographical errors which were not of my making  This had never happened before.  On top of that, the Chairman of the Board was down-putting about my Electronics Design activities.

Were these the words somebody was going to have with me?

English Electric offers consulting work through John Davis

Next, I got a call from John Davis saying that English Electric had approached him asking about consulting work - he said he had been in contact previously but nothing had transpired.   He asked if I would like to do market research at a steel concern with him?   He said it was urgent and added cryptically that he would look after the business side and I would look after the design side.  I said did not want to get involved with English Electric.

Conflicting information about my departure from M.I.

The Technical Director of M.I., Shull Arms, was quick in announcing my departure for when I went to two IEE meetings at Savoy Place on Monday 28th February I met E.F. Cranston, a Marconi member of my Electronics Design Committee representing the Electronic Engineering Association, who said Arms had been to Chelmsford and that he had told Cranston that I had left the Company.  On the other hand that day I also met Professor H.E.M. Barlow, a Director of M.I., at the IEE and when he made an enquiry about M.I. and I told him I had left, he said he was surprised and that he hadn't heard.  To add to the confusion, at a meeting a week or so later Cranston said he had heard that I hadn't really left M.I.  This was a remark I was to hear many times in the coming months.

On 1st March 1966 I learnt at an Institute of Physics Publications Committee that my departure from M.I. had already been announced at SIRA (Scientific Instrument Research Association) Council.

News of my departure soon reaches my Lodge via M.I.

On Saturday 26th February 1966 I attended a meeting of Alma Mater Lodge at Cambridge, in the course of which Kenneth Dibden, who had been Secretary of the Cavendish Laboratory and was now Secretary of the University of London Appointments Board, came up to me and said that he had heard I was on the trot.  I asked him how he had heard and he replied that Jeremy Bliss, the Personnel Manager of M.I., had visited him a day or two before and told him the news.  Bearing in mind that a detailed record of my contacts had been kept I had no doubt this was a deliberate act by M.I.

Job Disappointments with curious undertones

W.G. Pye  On 2nd March 1966, I heard from W.G.Pye of Cambridge that my application for a job as Director of Engneering had been turned down without an interview.  Yet it was Storey, their M.D., who had put my name up for S.I.R.A. Council.  He had done so at someone's request but he would not say who it was.

RMCS  Meanwhile on 15th March 1966 I heard that my application for the post of Dean had been unsuccessful.  Some days later I asked John Coales why I had been rejected and he said something which at the time seemed inexplicable about there being a problem about houses.

Kelvin  Also on 15th March 1966 I was interviewed for a Director of Engineering job at Kelvin Electronics.   I was pressed very strongly to say why I had left and I told them it was due to Machiavellian practices on the part of Burnett.   They promised to keep my reasons strictly confidential.   I resolved never to say why I had left in future. They asked me if I would like working for a small Company of only 600.   I heard on the 18th that I had not got the job.  Two months later, probably on the sting-removal basis, I received great support from a Kelvin Electronics man at an IEE/IERE Symposium.

Job Blocking

It was now becoming abundantly clear that my former employers were not sticking to the legal agreement drawn up between us that they would "not do anything to prejudice" my "obtaining other employment".

ELT  Thus on 2nd March 1966 an interview with a Mr.Cox at Ether Langham Thomson near Bushey was a pre-arranged put-down.  Someone seemed to be keeping records of these interferences and was keen to take the sting out of them for soon I was brought into contact with the founder of the firm,Tommy Langham Thomson, at an IEE committee meeting and later I got to know him quite well on a social basis.

Racal  Much of the prejudicial conduct was more subtle.  The next day, 3rd March, I was interviewed by D.W. Webb, Technical Director  of Racal, who said he had been given the task of recruiting me.  He said that one of the jobs they had in mind  might involve Classified work but there would be no problem with getting security clearance.   When I followed it up a few days later I was told that Security clearance was indeed an obstacle and that the main thing was to enjoy myself.  I did not obtain the job.

E.I. Ltd  On 1st March I had dined with Paul Goudime, M.D. of Electronic Instruments Limited (and later of Cambridge Instruments) and a great pal of Ray Burnett to explore the possibility of employment.  He said he wondered if I would like to do some market research.  I kept silent about what had taken place at M.I.  I put up a proposal and on 14th March 1966 he asked me to meet him at the Oxford & Cambridge Club, the main purpose of which seemed to be to tell me that Burnett had a very high opinion of me.  Nothing came out of the meetings.

hp  On 9th March 1966 I lunched in London with David Simpson, M.D. of Hewlett Packard's U.K.'s operation.   He seemed very keen to recruit me as Technical Manager at £4,000 p.a. plus bonus and benefits.  He asked me for further interview at hp's Bedford site in two weeks time.

Soon afterwards  I made an appointment to see WAG Brian, the Company Secretary, at M.I., St. Albans,  in connection with a loan M.I. had made to me and pension matters.  When I arrived at M.I. I was told that Ray Burnett wanted to see me and as I waited in Reception to be taken to his office I saw John Brodrick, the Commercial Manager, rush into the M.D.'s office with piece of newspaper in his hand and come out quickly without the paper.  When I went into Burnett's office there was just one piece of paper on his conference table - it was a newspaper cutting of a Hewlett Packard advertisement.  In this roundabout way I was being told that M.I. knew of my contact with Hewlett Packard.

When I visited Hewlett Packard at Bedford I was first asked if I minded that Kitchen, the Automatic Test Equipment man at Marconi, Chelmsford, was also visiting Hewlett Packard that day.  He was responsible for the application of ATE techniques in the factory at Chelmsford whereas as the Director of the MATE consortium I had been involved in the military applications.  I didn't mind in the least - in fact I did not meet him.  Then David Simpson asked me if I really had left M.I. to which I replied that I had.  Then H.P.'s Marketing Manager told me he had just been invited to visit M.I. by Ivor Gardner, his opposite number.  Undoubtedly these links to M.I. were not coincidences.

A week later I learned that hp had turned me down.  Their M.D., David Simpson wrote "I do appreciate our discussions and look forward to meeting you again in the future".

Ray Burnett's "I'll wait two years for you"

Around April 1966, either on a visit to M.I. or at an Institute of Physics event, Ray Burnett said he would wait two years for me!

Plessey interest

On 21st March 1966  I went to Liverpool to give a lecture on an Electronics Design topic.  In the audience was an engineer who had been involved with the rival ATE consortium bidder for the MATE project which had included Plessey as one of its members.  He said Plessey at Poole would be interested to retain me as a consultant on Electronics Design and perhaps other things and he said he would write to the appropriate person. 

'Politics' played down and morale boosted at an IEE event

In the evening of 25th March 1966 my wife and I went to the IEE East Anglian Sub-Centre Dinner at Cambridge.  Nat Hiller asked me why I had left M.I. and when I told him it was because of 'politics' he said it was nothing to get worried about - it happened everywhere.  He also said he had noticed my papers on practical class work were being quoted in articles and papers - I was getting quite well-known for that work.  A young Cambridge Instruments engineer buttonholed me and said how much he had been wanting to meet me, how much he admired my electronics work, etc.

Puzzling remarks by F.S. (Freddie) Barton at the Physics Exhibition

On Monday 28 March 1966 I attended the Physics Exhibition.  I had been commissioned to write an article on Ideas and Trends in the Electronics Field (which published in the July issue of the Journal of Scientific Instruments).

I met Freddie Barton and he asked me why I had left M.I. but I wouldn't tell him.  He then said he had done many favours for Mr. Sutherland.  I had long wondered on whose behalf he had been acting as intermediary and it seemed he was telling me, or rather hinting, that it was Neil Sutherland who was now Chairman of M.I. and Marconi.  But Neil Sutherland knew why I had left M.I. so I viewed Freddie Barton’s statement with some suspicion.  When I told him I was exploring the possibility of a job with hp, of which he was a Director, he expressed himself strongly against it.  He said there might be a job at Painton, of which he was also a director.

At one point he advised me not to give up my IEE committee activities -as though he knew something or thought he did.

Invitation from Plessey's A.J. Robb

On 7th April 1966 I heard from A.J. Robb, Management Development Executive of Plessey, asking me to come and see him.

Blocking of Painton job?

Fred Barton, former civil servant and on the Board of Painton as well as Hewlett Packard and Mullard thought I would be very suitable for the job of Chief Engineer at Painton.  He arranged for the job details to be sent to me by the Joint Managing Director J.B. Kaye who asked me to contact him if I was interested.  I did so and was invited to visit the Company.  I was well received, given a thorough tour of the factory, asked if I had really left M.I. and turned down.

When I told Fred Barton what had happened and asked him if any representations had been made to him about me he answered with an emphatic NO.  He went on to muse aloud that Ray Burnett had asked him for an introduction to the Chairman, a Mr. Benham.  He then paused as if struck by an awful thought, shook his head and said "No, Ray Burnett is not like that".  But alas he was.

Contrasting letters from Sir Fred Brundett

I had heard a few days before from Sir Frederick Brundett, K.C.B., K.B.E., One of Her Majesty's Civil Service Commissioners, that my application for an SPSO (Senior Principal Scientific Officer) post had been unsuccessful.  The letter was signed on his behalf by H.C. Pritchard, former M.D. of Cambridge Instruments.  Now Sir Fred Brundett wrote asking my opinion on a Special Merit award for an SPSO!

Was this a pain-killing follow-up to the rejection of my SPSO job application?

Message and support at IEE/IERE meeting

In the afternoon of 12th May 1966 I went to Letchworth College of Technology to chair a session of a Symposium on Recent Advances in Digital Electronics and Measurement sponsored by the IEE and IERE.  One of the speakers in my session was Peter Fellgett, who had made the curious reference to C.P. Snow just before I left Cambridge University for M.I.  At one point during the session he whispered in my ear that he had got a Chair out of quarrelling with his boss.  I had not given him the slightest hint of my personal position; someone must have got hold of him.

It was also at this session that I received some very supportive remarks from the representative from Kelvin Electronics.

Visited University of Sussex about a Lecturer appointment - met Asa Briggs

On 1st July 1966 I spent the day at the University of Sussex near Brighton, mostly with Prof. John West but also with a colleague of his, exploring the possible appointment to a vacant post.  On our way into lunch I was introduced to Asa Briggs, who was sitting owl-like in a busy vestibule leading to the restaurant but came to life as we engaged in a brief but stimulating conversation.  The whole visit was enjoyable and encouraging.

I had met John West before when I had chaired an IEE meeting; I had in fact been. instrumental in getting him and a colleague of his called Douce invited to present a paper at a meeting, which I think was the first occasion on which he lectured at the H.Q. of the IEE.