Note

For the avoidance of doubt, it should be noted that there were two engineers named Ken Smith who were contemporaneously employed by Marconi. Those who knew both used to differentiate them with the terms "Big Ken Smith" and "Little Ken Smith" - based on stature, not competence!

Both were car fans; "Big" Ken was an installation engineer latterly specialising in 50cm ATC radars, "Little" Ken was a signal processing engineer who left Marconi to join Reutech in South Africa and was a notoriously speedy driver. This page is about the latter…

Rick T

I have just heard that Ken Smith died on Friday 24th March in Somerset West, South Africa, where he has been living for many years.

He is survived by his wife Amanda. He also has a daughter and a sister in England.

Another larger-than-life personality at MRSL gone! I saw him last in 2019 in SA - he hadn't changed much from how you remember him!

David C

I remember George Robinson and myself visiting him once in SA way back and seeing some of the pop-up radar systems that they'd developed out there. He organised a great lunch for us one day in a vineyard, driving at breakneck speed to it with the car bottoming out along the bumpy earth roads along the way, while the vines flashed past on either side. Similar to the way he drove around Rivenhall airfield as I remember!

Ken W

I recall Ken Smith, I also remember being warned about accepting any car lifts from him - he had a unique appreciation of road speeds. I did heed the advice after one trip back from Baddow Village. He was a character amongst the many that populated MRSL, never forgotten RIP.

Mike D

This is so sad, I have many happy memories of working with Ken. The first time our paths crossed was in 1969 when I was 'working' in H Block, South Bay starting in June of that year having just left school after sitting my 'O' levels and waiting for my Marconi Technician Apprenticeship to start in the September - a family friend who lived a few doors away from us - John Brand - managed to wangle me a summer holiday job at Baddow(!). 

During that time Ken was introduced to me to wire up a prototype board using TI 74 series logic and seemed impressed with my work. I did the normal apprenticeship training over the next few years and thought no more about it. As luck would have it my final secondment was to Malcolm Austin's section - again in H block, South Bay!. As my final week arrived I was called in to Bruce Neale's office whereupon I was offered a permanent position in Ken Smiths section!

I started full time  the following Monday in Hut 15 with Frank Burroughs and Mick Brown. At first I was a little unsure of Ken, but we soon became great friends. I first started work on a new clutter switch for the S600 DSP and had many trips with Ken in his Mini to Bushy to do evaluations. The journey always being a bit traumatic for me especially the hump back bridge in Sandon. On one occasion Ken actually broke his record time of 12 minutes door to door which seems impossible by todays standards. Even after upgrading to Jim Mason's Red 1600 GT Cortina he never beat that record.

We always went to "The Bell" in Woodham Ferrers for lunch and had many games of bar billiards which Ken was unbelievably good at! Sometimes we would while away an hour playing Cribbage which he was also good at. 

I remember Ken had a penchant for Corona fizz which I soon acquired and both our desks used to rapidly fill with 'empties' which we had to haul down to the newsagents in the Vineyards to redeem the bottle deposits and refresh our supplies. The section moved to one of the 2 portakabins just to the south of Hut 15 by the car park - the other one being occupied by John Gammon's section - Bob Stripple et al. There we remained until the new 'C' Block was finished. 

I left for pastures new in 1978 but still kept in contact with Ken for several years after. A sad loss and end of an era. RIP Ken.

Alan M

Sorry to hear about “little” Ken Smith  - he was quite a character and very talented in several disciplines.

He drove cars and motorcycles very fast and many would not go in a car he was driving. And frankly we were surprised he did not kill himself, but I don’t think he had many accidents and must have been very skilled. He was also a good electronic circuit and logic designer and specialised in the black art of signal processing.

He used to come back from South Africa sometimes and have a few games of golf with us at Braxted – though his skill level was well above ours – on the 6th he was well able to hit his drive over the trees onto the green in 1, which took most of us VGS players about 4 shots plus.

Had not seen him much recently but he was not the sort of guy you could easily forget.

RIP Ken but I guess that will be a lot to ask of him.

Ian B

I remember quite a bit about Ken Smith and his lunchtime habit of trying to solve the Guardian cryptic crossword. Both his section and Chris Arnold’s, where I worked, were involved in what Alan calls the black art of signal processing so lunch hours was a break to wrack the brains even further with trying to solve crosswords rather than relaxing. The difference being that Chris and I would attempt the Telegraph one and Ken and his colleagues the Guardian. Quite often when we had finished I would wander over to Ken’s hut under the mast to see him wresting with Guardian one to see how close he was to completion. Quite often a few jovial words were exchanged as he poured through the Chamber’s dictionary of which Ken said was a must for top class crosswords unlike the simplicity of the Telegraph. More selective words were exchanged. One day after being married for a short while I was talking to him about a complaint I had received from my management telling me that whenever she had put the washing out it rained and the washing got soaked. Ken told me that he also had solved this problem by designing a rain detector that sounded an alarm in the house so his wife was suitably prepared to retrieve the washing. He was full of bright ideas. Lovely chap with a great sense of humour.

Barry P

More sad news regarding Ken. I first knew him when he worked in G Block at Writtle Road. I remember he drove a Ford XR4X4 in those days. 
In later years, after he left Marconi Radar, I kept in occasional touch with him via Ted Overy. He sometimes visited the UK and we would meet for a lunch in Sandon Crown to exchange information on projects of mutual interest.

I also went to South Africa in the mid 1990s to discuss potential collaborations with Reutech. Ken hosted  that visit and took us to one of their test sites and later for discussions in their offices in Cape Town. 

Another lost, characterful colleague.