Memoirs of a Boffin

In 1939, I was lucky enough to become one of the “backroom boys” in the early days of radar – one of the young civilian research scientists who were more or less affectionately referred to by the Royal Air Force as “boffins”. Our base of operations was known simply as TRE.

Thanks to the vision of a few enlightened people, some of them featured in these pages, we were given freedom, responsibility and authority far beyond our years. Otherwise, we took it by becoming expert at evading the bureaucracy. We were able to influence the course of the war, almost from day to day. We worked long and hard on those essential devices which made up the radar system. But the RAF was hungry for them – their lives often depended on them – and, after we had gained their confidence, we had few delays or frustrations in turning a new idea into tangible hardware and nursing its introduction into RAF operations.

I think that many of us who went through that wartime experience, as boffins, have felt that nothing that followed was quite like it. The experience affected our ways of thinking and behaving. Certainly, in my case, the pace of achievement during those few short years in TRE from 1939 to 1945 (and, to an extent, for different reasons, from 1945 to 1949) has left me perpetually impatient with bureaucracies (whether in government, industry or university) that worship procedure but shun innovative action.

After that first exciting career in defence research, I have also been fortunate to serve through three or four other careers, including research in two universities and in a multi-national industry, followed by a decade at the centre of government and a few years as a private consultant. I have been privileged to spend a good part of my time during the last 20 years working, in the context of the Club of Rome and its National Associations, towards a better future for coming generations. We have lived in three countries and have visited many others. The opportunities to travel widely, including some excursions into the Third World were a richly appreciated bonus. The friends I made on the way will never be forgotten. I hope this book conveys some of the excitement, the achievements and, even the odd, inevitable disappointment that were a part of that experience.

This book is dedicated to my wife, Nesta, who was also a member of TRE and is still, after more than fifty years, a constant source of support and inspiration.

J.R.W. August 2005

Preface: What’s a Boffin?

The following definitions are quoted from the entry in a Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary: (The Compact Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary; Volume III: A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary; Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1987)