Edward Terrell Edward Terrell OBE ( 1902 - 1979 ) was a Liberal politician , a successful barrister and magistrate with a flair for invention ; by 1940 he had registered a number of patents relating to pens , ink bottles and peeling knives . When war came , he volunteered for the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and was commissioned as a Lieutenant in the Special Branch of the Volunteer Reserve to run an information section . Early life . He was the son of Thomas Terrell KC , who was a Liberal Member of Parliament . He graduated at London University and was called to the Bar by Gray ' s Inn in 1924 . He first stood for Parliament at the 1929 General Election , when he was Liberal candidate for Watford . He came second , ahead of the Labour candidate . He did not contest the 1931 General Election but stood as Liberal candidate for Lambeth North at the 1935 General Election when he again finished second . From 1935 he was Recorder of Newbury . While still a civilian Terrell had outlined a scheme to the Admiralty suggesting that bases and units would need an attached lawyer to deal with the many personal legal problems that would arise with mass call - ups , and at the same time had applied to the commissioning board of the RNVR . Shortly afterwards he was approached by Charles F . Goodeve , on the staff of Sir James Sommerville , to run an information section . His selection was based on his scientific background and to some extent that his father ( a KC ) had practised in patent law . As a result he joined the RNVR as a Lieutenant . World War 2 . He was now part of what Terrell described as " private army " for Goodeve to develop naval weapons . It was nominally the staff of the " Inspector of Anti - Aircraft Weapons and Devices " but with Sommerville ' s departure to the Mediterranean fleet this post would be vacant , and the group ( consisting of Terrell , Goodeve , the aeronautical engineer Nevil Shute Norway , the scientist F D Richardson , and a regular naval officer Millar ) would have been disbanded but Goodeve and Millar made an arrangement with the Trade Division which was responsible for protection of the merchant fleet . As such Terrell was in charge of collecting information on the German methods of attacking the merchant ships . He developed plastic armour for which he received an award from the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors . When asked for films of German aircraft attacking merchant ships as propanganda for American production of Oerlikon guns , Terrell proposed a more substantial story using genuine mariners which received immediate approval from Sir Bruce Fraser , Controller of the Navy . The resulting film , " The Gun " , included the American commentator Edward Morrow . The film used some of Terrell ’ s collected footage of attacks on real ships . Recognised for his ingenuity , energy and tact , Terrell was appointed to the staff of the First Sea Lord as an assistant to Vice - Admiral Cecil Vivian Usborne . He was promoted with exceptional rapidity to the temporary rank of Commander . Usborne ' s task was to develop weapons and techniques against U - boats and he and Terrell formed a team of two . Their first success was introducing a tactical table to train and practice anti - submarine tactics at Western Approaches Command . After investigating the captured U - boat " U - 570 " they determined that if penetrated by 20mm shells , the crew would be unable to stop the flooding . As a result patrol craft were armed with Hispano 20 mm cannon . At the Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development he helped with the development of a more powerful version of Hedgehog anti - submarine weapon called Squid . He developed techniques for reducing the conspicuous smoke given off by ships and he worked on a bunker busting rocket powered bomb , the Disney bomb . Terrell enjoyed a close relationship with Millis Jefferis of MD1 and he once defended Jefferies in court when he had been found to be driving while uninsured . In 1947 he represented Robert Stuart Macrae , also of MD1 , at the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors who was being considered for his work on the Sticky bomb and other inventions . Post war . He returned to the legal profession after the war , taking silk and became a recorder of the Crown Court . In 1958 , be published a book on his wartime experiences . Terrell died on 13 November 1979 at the age of 77 . Some of his private papers related to his wartime work are held by the Imperial War Museum .