1. Robert Watson-Watt returned and continued to lead radar development for the War Office and Ministry of Supply.
26 Facts About Robert Watson-Watt
1. 2.
Robert Watson-Watt was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1941, was given a knighthood in 1942 and was awarded the US Medal for Merit in 1946.
3.
Robert Watson-Watt claimed to be a descendant of James Watt, the famous engineer and inventor of the practical steam engine, but no evidence of any family relationship has been found.
4.
Robert Watson-Watt had a successful time as a student, winning the Carnelley Prize for Chemistry and a class medal for Ordinary Natural Philosophy in 1910.
5.
Robert Watson-Watt graduated with a BSc in engineering in 1912, and was offered an assistantship by Professor William Peddie, the holder of the Chair of Physics at University College, Dundee from 1907 to 1942.
6.
At the start of the Great War Robert Watson-Watt was working as an assistant in the college's Engineering Department.
7.
In 1916, Robert Watson-Watt wanted a job with the War Office, but nothing obvious was available in communications.
8.
Robert Watson-Watt asked Watson-Watt about the possibility of building their version of a death-ray, specifically to be used against aircraft.
9.
Robert Watson-Watt quickly returned a calculation carried out by his young colleague, Arnold Wilkins, showing that such a device was impossible to construct, and fears of a Nazi version soon vanished.
10.
Robert Watson-Watt mentioned in the same report a suggestion that was originally made to him by Wilkins, who had recently heard of aircraft disturbing shortwave communications, that radio waves might be capable of detecting aircraft, "Meanwhile, attention is being turned to the still difficult, but less unpromising, problem of radio detection and numerical considerations on the method of detection by reflected radio waves will be submitted when required".
11.
On 12 February 1935, Robert Watson-Watt sent the secret memo of the proposed system to the Air Ministry, Detection and location of aircraft by radio methods.
12.
On 2 April 1935, Robert Watson-Watt received a patent on a radio device for detecting and locating an aircraft.
13.
Robert Watson-Watt had put another of the staff from the Radio Research Station, Edward Bowen, in charge of developing a radar that could be carried by a fighter.
14.
Robert Watson-Watt justified his choice of a non-optimal frequency for his radar, with his oft-quoted "cult of the imperfect", which he stated as "Give them the third-best to go on with; the second-best comes too late; the best never comes".
15.
Between 1934 and 1936, Robert Watson-Watt was president of the Institution of Professional Civil Servants, now a part of Prospect, the "union for professionals".
16.
In July 1938, Robert Watson-Watt left Bawdsey Manor and took up the post of Director of Communications Development.
17.
In 1939, Sir George Lee took over the job of DCD and Robert Watson-Watt became Scientific Advisor on Telecommunications to the Ministry of Aircraft Production, travelling to the US in 1941 to advise them on the severe inadequacies of their air defence, illustrated by the Pearl Harbor attack.
18.
Robert Watson-Watt was knighted by George VI in 1942 and received the US Medal for Merit in 1946.
19.
In 1956, Robert Watson-Watt reportedly was pulled over for speeding in Canada by a radar gun-toting policeman.
20.
Robert Watson-Watt wrote an ironic poem afterwards,.
21.
Robert Watson-Watt's magical all-seeing eye enabled cloud-bound planes to fly but now by some ironic twist it spots the speeding motorist and bites, no doubt with legal wit, the hand that once created it.
22.
On 3 September 2014, a statue of Sir Robert Watson-Watt was unveiled in Brechin by the Princess Royal.
23.
Robert Watson-Watt's second wife was a Canadian widow, Jean Wilkinson, who later died in 1964.
24.
Robert Watson-Watt returned to Scotland in the 1960s, after the closure of his Canadian engineering business.
25.
Robert Watson-Watt was 67 years old at the time and had played a significant role in the Battle of Britain as the founding Air Commander of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, which supplied the radar-room operatives.
26.
Robert Watson-Watt died in 1973, aged 81 in Inverness, two years after his third wife.