Gerry Valentine


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Report from Barry F

Very sorry to be the bearer of such sad news, but Gerry Valentine passed away early on Christmas Eve. He had been increasingly frail over the past year and more recently was unable to stand or walk unaided.

 

Gerry’s funeral will take place on Monday 30th January 2023 at 11h00 at St Mary’s Church in Gt Baddow. 

 

Tributes

 

Barry P

Gerry was a very talented radar systems engineer, colleague and manager. I knew him from the early days at Baddow and Martello with E-R, Eric Gildersleve, Dick Greenwood and Ted Overy. He had a good sense of humour and was proud of his Welsh heritage. Later at Writtle Road he was Systems Engineering Manager within Airspace Control Division and the Engineering Directorate in charge of 743D radar system development and its applications to KAWAL and MUSK projects. Over the years he made an enormous contribution and could always be relied upon. He was a great friend and colleague to many of us. He will be sadly missed. RIP Gerry.

 

Ian G

Very sorry to hear this sad news. He was a lovely man who could achieve the rare feat of being both respected boss and amiable friend at the same time. I hope that the Valentine Golf Society will live on as a memorial.

 

Mike P

Very sorry to hear the sad news.

 

Brian C

So sorry to hear this news. Gerry and I worked together for many years, had children of similar ages and travelled around together in UK and later abroad. It was my privilege to know him.

 

David F

I was very sorry to get this very bad news. I only knew Gerry from our golfing days in the VGS but he was always very supportive and a gentleman to the end. It is a great loss to us all.

 

Geoff M

Sorry to read this. Such a tough time to face mortality. Jerry was my last boss at Marconi, for my short time in Systems, but I had many dealings with him over the years before that. He was always convivial and an all around 'good guy'.

 

Alan M

I worked with and for Gerry for many years and found him a great friend. We did many proposals together for radar systems in many parts of the world and he took care of the radar requirements while usually leaving the display and data handling sections to me and the communications, diesels and infrastructure to others.  He was kind and understanding, had great knowledge and wisdom and was very easy to work with, having a great sense of humour; I also very much enjoyed our Systems group walking trips in the UK to Wales, the Lake District, and the Borders, etc. after retirement. I shall miss his company at golf and had great pleasure playing with him for 25 years or so after we retired. RIP Gerry

 

Cyril F

I worked with Gerry on a number of projects - what a pleasant man and such a competent Engineer.  

So sad to hear of his death.

 

David C

Sorry to hear about Gerry. I worked for him for a while at Baddow.  I remember how we all thought his contributions to the team briefs were the best. I believe he had to stop having been told they included too much information. A really nice guy. 

 

John L

So sorry to hear about Gerry - a really lovely guy.

 

George R

I was really sorry to hear the news about Gerry. We worked together on many projects, bids and reorganisations over the years and he was always a delight to be with. His calm, logical and always competent approach defused many difficult situations.

I know that on several occasions he was proposed by the company to receive a Government honour for his contribution to business and export. Sadly these nominations never came to fruition.

A very sad loss.

RIP Gerry

 

David H

So sorry to hear the sad news about Gerry. We had a long

relationship, especially working on Kawal, the Malaysian contract. A very

kind man with a wonderful cheery nature.

 

Funeral Oration

Covering Gerry's time at Marconi Radar (1957 to 2022) and given by Alan M.

 

Gerry’s son David said that his family had little idea what Gerry did at Marconi Radar, mainly because he did not talk much about his highly technical and usually secret work when he was at home.

 

In general terms the military radars we sold detected hostile aircraft and could direct fighters to intercept them, while the ATC radars were for the control of civil air traffic. The systems could be static sites or transportable.

 

Gerry started at Marconi from university as a Graduate apprentice in 1957.

When he finished his training he worked at Baddow Research, designing circuits for signal processing equipment to reduce unwanted radar signals.

 

The prospects there did not look too promising for him in this field, so he moved to Cossor's in 1961. There he found the work interesting but the road journey to and from Harlow from Chelmsford every day a chore, so he came back to Marconi as a systems engineer in 1967 and worked on bids for radar systems for foreign customers.  

This involved a lot of travelling round the world and later included time spent in the Philippines, the Congo and Algeria trying to get new business. 

 

By 1980 Gerry had senior status and was made Systems Manager with a department of around 50 expert radar engineers

His group did detailed technical proposals to meet a customer’s requirements for radar systems, which were priced by the Marconi Radar Commercial Department.

The bid to a customer usually included spares, services, roads, buildings, power generators, handbooks, ground to air communications, etc., and a broad detailed knowledge was therefore required by Gerry in many disciplines.

Some of these bids were priced at many tens of millions of pounds and it could take 5 years before the system was delivered and accepted after flight trials using the customer’s aircraft.  The equipment chosen was a mixture of Marconi design and bought-out items. Contracts were won for Yugoslavia, the Middle East, the Oman, Malaysia and many other countries and Gerry’s group managed technically the systems implementation of the contracts

Some of these radar systems could detect high flying large aircraft at 250 miles range and could give around 30 minutes warning of a threat.

 

Gerry was greatly respected, liked and admired by our customers who trusted his honesty, judgement and integrity both technically and commercially. These qualities were very valuable when compromises inevitably had to be made to reach agreements on the technical aspects of a contract.

For instance, the Malaysians had really wanted a new system like the American one they had purchased 10 years before, which Marconi could not really provide, but Gerry and his group were able to negotiate new sets of parameters to enable Marconi to fulfil the £200 million contract performance requirements.

 

By 1999 the need for high-power ground radar systems worldwide had greatly reduced due to new technology and business opportunities were very slack, with few new orders for any of the big radar suppliers. So the somewhat run-down remains of the The Marconi Radar Company, were sold off to British Aerospace who decided effectively to shut down the business.

Gerry and many other senior Marconi radar engineers had, however, seen the writing on the wall by 1998 and retired, but we had been friends and workmates for sometimes over 40 years and did not wish to lose touch with each other. 

For a few years some Radar engineers, including Gerry, had met on a Friday lunchtime at the Orange Tree pub in Chelmsford for a social pint. Many other ex-Radar engineers soon joined this group after retirement which expanded to sometimes 25 people. This group became called MOGS (Marconi Old Geezers ) and had its own website managed by Ian Gillis to keep up with the social traffic.

 

Gerry and some others decided that we also needed some regular exercise, so we took golf lessons and a sub group of MOGS played initially at Crondon Park par-3 course and then Regiment Way as our skills improved.

This group was christened the "Valentine Golf Society"; initially it had around 18 members, some from outside the  Radar field - and later moved to the very attractive Braxted Park course where they have played on Tuesdays and Thursdays all year round, for over 30 years, even getting official handicaps while there.

 

The engineers in MOGS originated from many interesting places in the UK, so it was decided that, on a couple of occasions a year, one of us would organise a visit for MOGS group members to an area they knew well or where they had grown up, stay in B & Bs, visit places of interest and do fairly long walks.

This was very successful and  for a number years after we retired we had very enjoyable 3 or 4 day visits for about 10 of us to the Lake District , the Borders, Derbyshire, Yorkshire and Wales, etc., all with beautiful scenery. 

The group also visited many places of interest, including industrial museums, aircraft and railway museums, power stations, castles, cathedrals, etc., There were some special surprises on these trips; for instance on Gerry’s trip to Wales he had organised with one of his Welsh cousins for us to be picked up by a narrowboat and taken over the Telford aqueduct on the canal at Llangollen and back to our hotel — a great pleasure and unique experience.

We ate and drank well on these trips and had a lot of laughs.

 

Gerry was a wonderful and a sympathetic person to have as a manager and found time, though often under pressure, to discuss problems, which enabled us take advantage of his great knowledge and wise council on radar matters. He was always a very modest gentleman and we shall greatly miss his sense of humour, good company, and friendship. 

 

Thanks Gerry RIP