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Obituary

Page history last edited by Alan Hartley-Smith 12 years, 11 months ago

Sutherland

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Introduction

This obituary was published in the Marconi Veterans Association Newsletter Number 8 January 2006



 

The death occurred on 1st November 2005 at Stow-cum-Quy in Cambridgeshire of John W Sutherland who for many years was Managing Director of Marconi Radar Systems, situated at the old Crompton site in Writtle Road, Chelmsford.

 

John Sutherland was educated at Queens College Cambridge from 1941-42 and 1946-48, graduating with a BA in 1947 and MA in 1949. He was a Radar Officer in the Royal Navy between 1942 and 1946, serving in the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. After graduating, he served an engineering apprenticeship and became a radar development engineer with Metropolitan Vickers. Whilst there, he worked on the receiver system for a radar which became known as Orange Yeoman, one of the equipments which MRSL inherited after the GEC EEC merger.

 

He joined Marconi as a radar research engineer at Baddow in 1954, working on the receivers for Passive Detection, and, with considerable involvement in the PD trials, spent a large amount of his time in a hut at the 200 ft level of the Baddow CH tower. He became a project manager in 1956, Manager Defence Projects in 1962 and, following divisional reorganisation in 1965, was appointed Manager Radar Division. Within months of its reorganisation, Radar Division had the largest order book that it had ever held, with the contracts for NATO refurbishment.

 

As a result of the GEC EEC merger, Marconi Radar Systems Ltd (MRSL) was created to be responsible for the radar activities of AEI, Elliott and Marconi. The company comprised three establishments at Leicester, two at Gateshead as well as Baddow and Writtle Road and three test sites, with John its Managing Director from 1969-83.


John always considered it important to have a radar system in development, to meet potential customers needs and to protect the business against the fluctuations in defence radar procurement. One of the first projects that John initiated resulted from lunch time meetings in the Running Mare, where John, Ellis Robinson (Engineering Manager) and Roy Simons (Technical Director) planned the implementation of the S600 series, which won a Queen’s Award, (central management never signed the development proposal!). The Martello series, which sold world wide, was the final example.

 

The radar business flourished under John’s leadership, the SEAWOLF GWS25 radar missile system providing large and continuing business.

 

It was the Defence Review in 1982 that resulted in John’s departure. The MOD cancelled the naval destroyer programme and with it the SEADART 909 radar programme at Leicester. John was appointed Vice Chairman of the Marconi Company in 1982, and he retired from Marconi in 1983.

 

From 1983 to the early 1990s he was Director of Acorn Computer Group plc, Director MTI Managers Limited (venture capital), and Chairman/Director/Consultant to several high-tech companies. He was President of the Electronic Engineering Association 1980-81 and was awarded a CBE for services to export in 1980.

 

John moved to Stow-cum-Quy following retirement from Marconi and was actively involved in village life. On the parish council, and chairman for eight years, he was influential in getting affordable housing built in the village. He was a member and treasurer of the Church Building Trust, and the church’s Millennium clock was greatly the result of his endeavours.

 

In recent times John fought very hard with others to retain the Marconi Archives in Chelmsford. He established a close relationship with Princess Elettra Marconi and was instrumental in getting her involved in this struggle. He was very upset when the archives were finally moved to Oxford University.

 

Sutherland

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Comments (1)

Ian Gillis said

at 5:12 pm on Feb 12, 2016

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