Bill Igoe Squadron Leader William Anthony Kevin ( Bill ) Igoe , F . R . Ae . S . , C . E . , ( 17 Apr 1911 – 15 Nov 1993 ) , was an Irish born Royal Air Force officer who was Senior Controller for No . 11 Group RAF at RAF Biggin Hill . He was also a noted sportsman and businessman . Early Life & Sporting Career . He was born in Nenagh , Co . Tipperary and educated at Presentation College Bray , Co . Wicklow and the Engineering College in Cork , part of University College Cork . This led to a scholarship to study aeronautical engineering at the London College of Aeronautical Engineering , and from there he joined the RAF . His sporting career began at this time . He was particularly gifted on the rugby field where he played for the Leinster Schools XV against both Connacht and Munster in the 1928 / 29 season . He also won a Munster senior Cup medal with Dolphin during the 1930 / 31 season . In England he played for London Irish and the RAF . The 1935 edition of Who ’ s Who in Sport listed his activities as rugby , boxing , tennis , golf , and swimming , in the first two of which he represented the RAF . He was Captain of London Irish in 1949 , and played his last game at the age of 40 in 1951 . During the period he also had international rugby trials for Ireland twice , although nothing came of them due to service commitments . He went on to play squash at the highest level , and his career as an amateur golfer reached its apex with winning the Gleneagles Pro - Am tournament in 1959 , in which most of the country ’ s biggest names participated that year . RAF Officer . His high placing in aeronautical engineering exams offered a career in the Royal Air Force , then expanding to meet the threat of European fascism . After qualifying as a fighter pilot and Flying Boat Captain , he served at RAF Wittering , with 29 ( F ) Squadron ADGB ( Air Defence of Great Britain ) in Egypt in 1935 . Back in England he was posted to 23 ( F ) Squadron at RAF Biggin Hill in 1936 , and 213 Squadron at Northolt . Northolt was to see the end of his flying career , because on 12 April 1937 he suffered a serious flying accident that left him with extensive third degree burns and a 6 - month spell in hospital . It was not , however the end of his RAF career which up to now had been unremarkable . When World War 2 broke out the following year he reported to his old station Biggin Hill where , with his recent active flying experience , he was invaluable as a Controller . By the summer of 1940 he had become a Squadron Leader , and a legend in the Control Room , a legend much enhanced by the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau affair . Coming on duty at 7 a . m on 12 February 1942 he noticed aircraft movements seaward of the French port of Brest that the previous controller had dismissed as air - sea rescue , but that he deduced must have been escorting capital ships because of their speed . What he had seen was what British forces were expecting , the break out of a powerful German flotilla which included the Scharnhorst , Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen from Brest where they had been under heavy attack by Coastal and Bomber Command . A code word had been arranged for this eventuality and Igoe used it . It was one of the several disasters in the chain of events of this famous Channel Dash that it was not acted upon . An attack by a Royal Naval destroyer , which was badly damaged , and the suicidal assault on the ships by unsuited Fairy Swordfish torpedo aircraft of the Fleet Air arm , commanded by Lieutenant Commander Eugene Esmonde , failed to stop the flotilla from reaching German waters . Controlling had turned him into a specialist in the infant radar equipment , and 1943 saw him posted to command RAF Beachy Head , one of the famous “ Chain Home ” stations which now became a Fighter Direction Station , and from where he was to spend the rest of the war developing the use of Radar for Fighter Control based on the famous “ Type 16 ” . Business and family . In 1937 he met and married Karin Ridsdel , daughter of accountant and financier E . B . Ridsdel . After the war Igoe bought what remained of his father - in - law ’ s business , Ridsdel having died in 1939 . It had worldwide interests , notably in Africa , on which he built . In Rhodesia he started a tea plantation industry , which would end up employing some 5 , 000 people . He also started the carpet manufacturing industry there . He and his wife , who were inseparable , had three sons , the first of whom died in infancy and the other two who survived him . In his lifetime he had seven grandchildren . He held views on political and social issues that were way ahead of his time . He was always entertaining and sharp witted , and never lost the common touch . At his funeral in 1993 the tea estate workers who attended would call him " munhu re vanhu " – a man of the people .