"The man crucial to Marconi's success

Ken Perry was born in Harrogate on 7 June 1930. He was evacuated during the Second World War to Blaenau Ffestiniog in North Wales. In 1948, he was called up for national service with the RAF, based at Lossiemouth on the Moray Firth.

He studied Physics with Mathematics at the University of Newcastle, after which he was taken on at Marconi. In 1956, he met Ann McEntee and in 1958 they were married at Brentwood Cathedral.

Ken worked for Marconi Radar Systems, under the leadership of Managing Director J W Sutherland CBE MA FIEE. Marconi's Silver Jubilee publication (1994) states: ".... intruding aircraft could fly just a few feet above the sea .... below the cover of microwave defence radars." In order to track this threat, Ken Perry oversaw the development and production of a high frequency surface wave 'over-the-horizon' radar. Former colleague Gerry Valentine tells us: "Prior to 1983 he was the Group Chief and expert on microwave components, designing them and manufacturing them for high-powered radar systems."

In 1988, when Marconi Radar Systems registered interest in the Jindalee Operational Radar Network, Ken was instrumental in securing the contract for collaboration with Telecom Australia. Ken's wife, Ann, remembers a phone call from the late J W Sutherland, in which he said that Ken had saved the company.

Ken continued to work with Marconi Radar Systems for seven years after his 65th birthday, being named as the inventor of the 'near-vertical incidence HF radar' on a patent application in 2001. After departing from Marconi in 2002, he continued to give lectures there for many years. He also gave lectures at the IET, and annually in support of his wife's homeopathic interests.

Ken died on 28 July 2015.

Obituary from The Alice Springs News.