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I was born in Ipswich, Suffolk, in 1909 and was brought up by my mother, my father having been killed in action in France during World War I. I left school at the age of 15 with a working knowledge of Mathematics and English but my greatest academic achievement was in Science. I suppose it was inevitable that this subject would play a large part in my adult life.

My Grandfather was Engineer and Manager of Ipswich Corporation’s Air Compressing Station, driven by twin compound Davey-Paxman steam engines. I remember being with him in the engine room, at the age of 9, when the factory hooters blew for the Armistice at 11.00 am on November 11th 1918.

I inherited an interest in art from my father and in the years leading up to the Second World War I was able to indulge myself in learning to paint. I also developed a love of photography and did all my own developing and printing in an airless cupboard under the stairs at my home. I devised and made apparatus for taking photo-micrographs and won a Highly Commended for these at the annual exhibition of Ipswich Photographic Society, of which I was then a member.

Following in my Grandfather’s footsteps, I started work as an Apprentice in the Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Department at Ipswich Corporation. Later, as Assistant Engineer-in-Charge at the Air Compressing Station, I had responsibility for repairs to the engines, compressors and other equipment at the main station, and at two independent sub stations at opposite ends of the town.

With my transport at that time being limited to a bicycle I didn’t have much time to devote to my new hobby of photography, so when the Borough Surveyor’s Department decided they wanted to keep a photographic record of the various new civil engineering works being undertaken in Ipswich, I jumped at the chance. I was provided with a “field” camera using glass plates and a darkroom at the museum laboratory.

I lived in Felixstowe during the economic slump of the 1930s and found myself in several different jobs, including selling vacuum cleaners door to door and assisting a hospital radiologist, in whose premises I was able to do medical photography, blood counts and X-ray work. I then left East Anglia for a short time and found work as a seaside photographer for the summer season, first in Torquay and later in Margate.

Moving back to Suffolk, I joined the Post Office Engineering Department (precursor of BT) and attained several qualifications in Engineering, including one at Dollis Hill and finished up at Aldeburgh repeater station where the submarine cables go out to Domberg.

In 1938 I was lodging at Aldeburgh when I became aware of “something going on” at the Air Ministry Research Establishment at Bawdsey, so I wrote and asked for an interview. They thought I could be of much more use to my country working with them than the Post Office, and I joined the Radar Research and Development team forthwith.

The concept of Radar (Radio Aircraft Detection and Ranging) had already been formulated, and through the course of its development had previously been called Radio Direction Finding, and Radio Location (the name given by Watson Watt its inventor), with the various types and applications having their own names.
However, the development of Radar as our main form of air defence had now become a priority. I was primarily a communications specialist and was involved in formulating and maintaining a multi-line telephone system to speed up the transmission of flight information to Fighter Command.

With the prospect of an imminent east coast invasion, Bawdsey was hurriedly evacuated two days before the War started. The research side went to Dundee and most of my technical drawings and notebooks went with it and I never saw them again.

I stayed behind at Bawdsey with a small specialist unit, and took it in turns to cover night duty in a small office in the transmitter building, a most interesting experience. We had to be available in the event of a breakdown or other emergency at any of the six Radar stations in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex. I recall being on duty one night when two enemy Heinkels flew out over the station, one on fire which then crashed out at sea. Eventually we were considered too vulnerable at Bawdsey and were moved to Cambridge.

Up to then I had used RAF transport (van and driver) to take me between the various Radar stations, but I felt I needed more flexibility. I used most of my available capital to buy a second-hand Ford 10 for £40. I think it had been a commercial traveller’s car — it was heavy on oil and badly needed a re-bore — but it was all I could afford. During 1939-40 I visited all twenty Chain ��ѿ��ý Stations between Ventnor, Dover and Aberdeen, most more than once, and I was thankful to have my own transport for most of that time.

When France fell and the Germans started using French airfields to gain access to the west coast at Merseyside — our lifeline — a West Coast Chain of Radar stations became a priority. I was sent to 77 Wing based at Liverpool. During the War all lights and signposts were blacked out, and I drove my car on a filthy November day from Cambridge to Liverpool. My new HQ was in Woolton and I pulled up outside my lodgings, reversed to turn round and one end of the track-rod fell off. I shuddered when I thought of all the lorries I had met on my journey up and what could have happened if this incident had occurred on a busy main road. Spares were difficult to come by at that time, but the RAF mechanics made a good repair and I was able to carry on using the car.

I spent all but two days a month travelling round my six Radar Stations — two in the Isle of Man, for which I had to go to Fleetwood about every three weeks — the only boats then running to the Island being the “Snaefell” and the “Russian Castle”, Fleetwood to Douglas. My next station was Rhuddlan, near Rhyl; then Wylfa; the north of Anglesey and Nefin on the Lleyn Peninsula, about 20 miles beyond Caernarvon.

One day I was snowed up by a sudden heavy snowfall at Nefin and found the road to Caernarvon blocked by two lorries stuck at the bottom of a dip with a hill in both directions. The road was icy and I had no snow chains. I backed out with difficulty and went round through Criccieth and Beddgelert. Near Beddgelert I twice climbed a frozen hill two-thirds of the way and promptly slid down backwards; the third time I made it to the top.

Towards the end of 1942 there was a change of policy; the RAF Radar Training Schools had trained enough technicians to cover the CH Stations, and it was decided by the powers-that-be that civilian technicians attached to 60 Group (like myself) should return to civilian establishments.

With a number of others I went to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. Again, I was lucky. Most of the others I knew were assigned to incredibly boring paper work, but I was assigned to the laboratories of the Radio Department, to develop a means of multi-channel radio communication which could not be intercepted; it seemed that we had lost a tank battle in North Africa because our radio messages had been intercepted.

Although working with the RAF and in highly specialised and secret fields, I retained civilian status which had distinct advantages in meeting all RAF ranks commissioned and non-commissioned. I had a pass which would admit me to any part of any RAF Station or establishment in the UK.

My move to RAE had not initially filled me with much enthusiasm (nor so my Squadron Leader at 77 Wing who was very sorry to lose me) but that move turned out to be extremely positive. While I was there I met the love of my life, my late wife Muriel.

When the War ended I was at an out-station of the RAE at Crowthorne in Berkshire, with Muriel working nearby at Wokingham Post Office. My work in Radar had come to an end and it seemed I could only get back into it by moving to the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Malvern — which had been developed from Air Ministry Research Establishment, Bawdsey and later Dundee. I had a look at Malvern but decided that it would not suit the needs of my wife and myself, so we decided to seek pastures new.

I attended Teacher Training College in London but eventually decided a teacher’s life was not for me, as I was first and foremost a scientist. While working as a technician at the University College of Wales I attained an Intermediate BSc in Zoology, and in 1956 finished my scientific career at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment, Harwell, working for the Radiobiological Research Unit.

My wife and I moved back to Suffolk in the 1970s and for many years I was lucky enough to make a modest living from my painting. Sadly at the age of 96 I am no longer able to paint, but I am able to look back on my life and feel pleased and proud that I had the good fortune to be involved with Radar in its development at Bawdsey and its use by the RAF, particularly in the Battle of Britain. If there was a single War-winning weapon Radar was it, and without it the outcome of the War would have been very different.

John (Jack) Welbourn
1 December 2005

This story was posted onto The People's War website by John Welbourn's cousin, Gillian Mason

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