on the modifications. In December, Robert attended to increasing demands
for valves using the CV90 (micropup) techniques—GR gun laying radar
based on the 25 cm micropup performing particularly successfully—and by
late December H2S was introduced to Bomber Command.
1943 began spectacularly for the Laboratories when three staff members—
including E. C. S. Megaw (MBE)—were recognised in the King’s New Year
Honours List. This success was reinforced by a visit to Wembley on Saturday
16 January from Sir Stafford Cripps, then Minister for Aircraft Production,
who used the Laboratories public address system to speak to all the staff, once
again reminding them just how appreciative the Government was of their
work;
… there is no doubt that you, who are working in the laboratories doing
development and research work, are pitting your brains against theirs
[Germans and Italians], and we can be proud that British development, at
least in this scientific warfare, has always been able to hold the lead, and it
is your work which has given us this lead, and it is your work that is going
to keep us in the lead to the day of victory …
Clearly, Paterson was now harvesting the kind of recognition that would
shame and motivate his ‘slackers’, and the praise continued with a letter from
the 3rd Sea Lord—Controller of the Navy—on 01 February for producing, in
quantity, ‘ … several types of especially important valves used in Radio Direction
Finding equipment …’
46 Paterson’s letter to Sir Frank Smith was paying
dividends, Miss Locke certainly taking up the baton with several ‘mentions’
in the Diary regarding her efforts in sorting out the ‘various vicissitudes’ of the
valve pre-production accounts with Robert, who in turn was alongside
Paterson when the two men met G. M. Wells in March—who Paterson
describes as ‘of the extreme Left’—to discuss the Laboratories’ structure, their
ideals for its future and the impact on his Trade Union, the Association of
Scientific Workers. It was apparently a very friendly ‘chat’ but backed by the
enormous amount of praise the Laboratories had received recently, Wells and
his colleagues were left in no doubt that those staff who failed to engage fully
with the efforts of the Laboratories were clearly in breach of their national
obligations. By early September that year however, the explosion of new staff
at the Laboratories—largely beyond Paterson’s control—led to his opinion of
the Union(s) hardening
47 ;
Truly things are going well – far better than our materialistic and individually grasping tendencies deserve. Trade Unions lead the way and
17 The GEC Laboratories 1939–1949
429
for valves using the CV90 (micropup) techniques—GR gun laying radar
based on the 25 cm micropup performing particularly successfully—and by
late December H2S was introduced to Bomber Command.
1943 began spectacularly for the Laboratories when three staff members—
including E. C. S. Megaw (MBE)—were recognised in the King’s New Year
Honours List. This success was reinforced by a visit to Wembley on Saturday
16 January from Sir Stafford Cripps, then Minister for Aircraft Production,
who used the Laboratories public address system to speak to all the staff, once
again reminding them just how appreciative the Government was of their
work;
… there is no doubt that you, who are working in the laboratories doing
development and research work, are pitting your brains against theirs
[Germans and Italians], and we can be proud that British development, at
least in this scientific warfare, has always been able to hold the lead, and it
is your work which has given us this lead, and it is your work that is going
to keep us in the lead to the day of victory …
Clearly, Paterson was now harvesting the kind of recognition that would
shame and motivate his ‘slackers’, and the praise continued with a letter from
the 3rd Sea Lord—Controller of the Navy—on 01 February for producing, in
quantity, ‘ … several types of especially important valves used in Radio Direction
Finding equipment …’
46 Paterson’s letter to Sir Frank Smith was paying
dividends, Miss Locke certainly taking up the baton with several ‘mentions’
in the Diary regarding her efforts in sorting out the ‘various vicissitudes’ of the
valve pre-production accounts with Robert, who in turn was alongside
Paterson when the two men met G. M. Wells in March—who Paterson
describes as ‘of the extreme Left’—to discuss the Laboratories’ structure, their
ideals for its future and the impact on his Trade Union, the Association of
Scientific Workers. It was apparently a very friendly ‘chat’ but backed by the
enormous amount of praise the Laboratories had received recently, Wells and
his colleagues were left in no doubt that those staff who failed to engage fully
with the efforts of the Laboratories were clearly in breach of their national
obligations. By early September that year however, the explosion of new staff
at the Laboratories—largely beyond Paterson’s control—led to his opinion of
the Union(s) hardening
47 ;
Truly things are going well – far better than our materialistic and individually grasping tendencies deserve. Trade Unions lead the way and
17 The GEC Laboratories 1939–1949
429