Details

The Institution of Wireless Engineers was formed at a general meeting held 31 October 1925, however at a subsequent meeting on 28 November 1925 the name was changed to the Institute of Wireless Technology ('IWT'). A breakaway body was formed a few years later called The Institution of Radio Engineers ('IRE'). In 1941 these two organisations came together and adopted the title The British Institution of Radio Engineers [information extracted from the The British Institution of Radio Engineers year book 1946]. The archives contain very little material from the first three decades of the institution’s life. There are a few formal documents, printed council reports and examination papers covering the IWT, but no records of the breakaway IRE that existed alongside the IWT between 1932 and 1941. Council minutes go back to 1944 and Technical Committee minutes to 1942. A few other committee minutes begin in the 1950s, but the majority date from the 1960s to the 1980s. Very little material has survived from the administrative departments. The IERE moved headquarters three times during its life, and during its last years was under considerable pressures of space. Many non-essential records were probably disposed of during the various moves. Very little material was received from the local sections - in most cases only those files of minutes, budgets and correspondence which were open at the time of the merger.