Alan M

I have just had a phone call from John Brand’s  Son-in-law to say that he died today (3/12/2021) after suffering another severe stroke about 3 weeks ago.

He has been in a care home at Springfield for a few months and, other that he had difficulty walking and some memory problems, he seemed fairly comfortable and could carry on a good conversation about Marconi, motorbikes and mutual friends.

 

John L

Thanks for the update on John Brand - sorry to hear about his death. I had been to visit him in Lyons Court a couple of times, and had planned to go again shortly, but sadly this won't be possible.

 

Barry F

Very sorry to hear of John’s death. We never worked together apart from sharing the stand at Farnborough. I really got to know him well whilst on the MOGS walks in various locations around England and Wales. Always very good company, always very cheerful and good for a laugh. He will be missed.

 

Ian B

How sad to hear about the passing of John Brand. I knew him very well in the 1970’s when our group with Chris Arnold worked together. There was always so much laughter in H Block and when we used to get together at the Marconi Club in Beehive Lane we had so much fun and he was a real ladies man chatting up the Sandra’s and Tina Marshall. There was so much life in him and Chris, who has sadly passed and John would get together round the bar while Ray Brown, who worked for John and myself would be playing snooker while Chris, John and Dave Atwell were in fits of laughter round the bar. When it came to work it was all taken seriously and Chris and I would be supporting Heightfinder tests and analysis. Chris and John journeyed out to Malaysia for acceptance testing with Malaysian RAF, leaving myself and Ray to provide the analysis from their test results. Chris told me before he left to remove any odd results that were greater than three times the standard deviation and we did it thoroughly, a bit too much and Roy Simons received a call from their project management. Chris and John managed the flack with good humour and the matter was resolved. He was very dynamic in everything that I saw him do, either socially or on work matters and in everything was on good terms with everyone he met. 

He was one of the most cheery people I have ever met and was always firm but fair. I regret the day I was made redundant and took a transfer to MSDS At Portsmouth because I left behind all those lovely people up the field like John and Chris, who knew the right way to work with people, from Ted Stripe the cleaner to ER. Such a lovely chap.

RIP John

 

Ian G

I didn't often work with John, but whenever I met him he was clever, self-effacing, friendly and helpful. He will be greatly missed.

 

Alan M (bis)

Here is some information about John who I worked with on and off for some years on the S600 mobile system.

John worked with Chris Arnold on the design of the C band S613 height finder which was azicated from the Anvil display cabin onto targets of interest.

The result after a nod was to supply Anvil with digital target elevation angle and in Anvil there was firmware largely designed by Harry Fancy and Mike Lewis which turned this into a height reading for the Requesting PPI Display operator.

I was responsible for a mixture of the hardware design and electronics for Anvil and hence worked closely with John Brand on the development of the system.

This prototype setup was taken to Farnborough Airshow in 1968 and John and I went there with it to help with the demonstration. As result of this about 35 mobile S600 systems were sold to Turkey,Yugoslavia, Malaysia, and other customers.

The first system sold went to Turkey and as usual had a few bugs and we had to go to Turkey to help with this first installation and train some field services and customer technicians.

During an unexpected week off we took the opportunity to go to Istanbul for a few days which was a very interesting and enjoyable visit.

We shared an interest in motorcycles and later worked together to restore a Triumph 650cc Bonneville.

John was a great friend, my son’s godfather and always good and very helpful company both technically and socially.

RIP John.

 

Malcolm M

It is with great sadness that I have heard about John’s passing. My work interface with him was in the mid 1980’s when he and his section in Engineering were working on S723. Those personnel that I can remember being Neville Jessop, Andy Rimmer, Dave Atwell and Peter Southee. John was always very helpful even though he had a lot on his plate at the time; he always had time to be consulted about a problem. A pleasant and sociable person who I met in later years at the MOG’s Friday get-togethers at the Orange Tree.

RIP John.