Edward Fennessy Edward " Ned " Fennessy ( 17 January 1912 – 21 November 2009 ) was an electronics engineer who helped lead several developments of early radar systems under Robert Watson - Watt and went on to lead development of a variety of radio navigation systems . In the post - war era he led the development of the Decca Navigation System and the company ' s subsequent expansion to become a leader in maritime radar systems . He later worked for Plessey before becoming a managing director of British Telecommunications Research and then becoming deputy chairman of the General Post Office . He is also known as the recruiter of Arthur C Clarke as a radar technician during the war . Before the war . Fennessy was born in West Ham , London , on 17 January 1912 and educated at St Bonaventure ' s Grammar School in Forest Gate . His early academic career was not spectacular , and he graduated with a second - class degree from East London College in 1934 . Fennessy had been active experimenting with electrical equipment starting at the age of 10 , and this proved useful during the job hunt . He and his fellow East London student Geoffrey Roberts joined Standard Telephones and Cables soon after graduation . Here he worked on " sound location amplifiers " . War efforts . In 1937 Roberts was called to work with Robert Watson - Watt at Watt ' s secret radar development centre at Bawdsey Manor , in Suffolk on the east coast of England . Roberts apparently called for Fennessy to join him , but Fennessy was initially rejected as unsuitable . As experimentation turned to development a need for engineers developed , and Fennessy was summoned to Bawdsey in 1938 , shortly after marrying Marion Banks . On 29 October 1938 Roberts and Fennessy made the now - famous " night dash " from Bawdsey to meet Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding on the opening night of the Munich Crisis . Explaining the problems coordinating the information from radar , and the edge this would give the RAF if this problem were addressed , the two convinced Dowding to set up the famous fighter operations room in a cellar at Fighter Command headquarters . All of this was completed in only 36 hours . At the time only five Chain Home stations were operational , a number Roberts considered barely functional , and Fennessy turned his attention to rapidly building new stations to complete the network . As the war opened , Watt worried that its location on the east coast made Bawdsey open to attack , and proposed moving the entire centre to Dundee in Scotland . Fennessy pressed for the now operational sections to be separated from the research arm . This led to the creation of " 60 Group RAF " in Leighton Buzzard , not far from London . Watt ' s research arm moved several times in the next few years , before becoming the Telecommunications Research Establishment in Malvern . At 60 Group , Fennessy led the operational deployment of many radar and radio navigation systems . These included the development of portable radar systems , and both Gee and Oboe navigation systems . One particularly ironic development concerns the Sonne long - range radio navigation system set up by the Luftwaffe . Sonne proved so useful to RAF Coastal Command that when pushing back of the front lines by the Allies meant Germany no longer had access to Spain , Fennessy arranged for spare parts to be delivered to the Sonne broadcasters located there . In late 1943 Fennessy prepared a plan for navigation and pathfinding systems to support an amphibious landing on the continent . He selected Normandy as his example location , and when he presented the plan he was detained by Provost Marshal s until he convinced them that this was accidental . He was then " bigoted " into planning for the invasion , and given the task of making the plan come to fruition . He was Mentioned in Despatches and appointed to the Order of the British Empire ( OBE ) in 1944 . After the war . Fennessy was demobilized as a Group Captain in the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1945 . For five years he commanded No 3700 ( City of London ) Radar Reporting Unit . In 1946 he took a position with the Decca Navigation Company , a recent spin - off from Decca Records created to commercialize the Decca Navigation System built by the company during the war . By 1950 Fennessy had completed development of low - cost radar systems , leading to another spin - off , Decca Radar , with Fennessy as the managing director . Decca held a commanding lead in the UK civil maritime radar world for many years , and was a major player worldwide . In 1952 he led efforts that eventually won the contract for the RAF ' s Type 80 radar , and opened a large factory at Cowes on the Isle of Wight to produce them . This factory remained a major radar factory throughout its history . In 1965 Decca Radar was sold to Plessey to become the Plessey Radar Company . Fennessy remained as the managing director of the new company . He moved into telecommunications research when Plessey and GEC formed a joint effort to build satellite ground stations . In 1969 Fennessy became the managing director of British Telecommunications Research , part of the General Post Office . In 1975 he was promoted to become the Post Office ' s deputy chairman , where he led an effort to get phones into the field . At the time there was a 225 , 000 person long waiting list for phones , mostly due to the lack of switching capability . Fennessy solved this problem by deploying truck - based mobile switches formerly used by the military . That year he presented the 20 millionth telephone in the UK , which was also the 5 millionth in London . After retiring in 1977 , he took on a number of consultancy jobs ; including IMA Microwave Products and British Medical Data Systems , among others . Marion died in 1983 and he re - married Patricia Birkett in 1984 .