Peter Tootill writes: –
Hi Anne,
My father also worked on radar at TRE during the war. His name was Geoff Tootill (he died in 2017). I don’t remember him mentioning Jimmy Diamond but I expect they would have known each other. Dad worked on Beaufighter radar (AI Mk VIII, I seem to remember) and I gather your father worked on Lancasters?
My parents were also heavily involved in the TRE ‘Flying Rockets Concert Party’ and I wonder if yours were as well? MRATHS have a stack of programmes and photos.
Anyway, I thought you might be interested in the fact that my father was interviewed for the British Library ‘Voices of Science’ project a few years ago (looking back, I see it was 2009, he would have been 87 at the time. The interview covered his whole career (he went on to work on the first computer at Manchester in 1948 and even worked with Alan Turing) and the TRE bit is, naturally, quite near the beginning and might be of interest to you and those that use your website?
You can find some info here and the full interview and transcripts start here. There are 12 tapes of around 90 mins each but these cover his whole career, so the TRE/Malvern section is just a small part. There are PDF transcripts so it’s possible to skim read for sections that might be of specific interest. I’m sure the British Library would have no problem with links to the relevant sections being added to your site, if you thought that might be appropriate.
Best wishes
Peter Tootill
Related Audio Clips
The following clips are short extracts from an in-depth interview.
To listen to the full interview visit http://sounds.bl.uk
`Radar Families' 