Title
Oral histories about Mullard Research Laboratories, recorded 1999
Reference
UK0108 NAEST 242
Date
10 June 1999 to 22 June 1999
Scope and Content
These 6 oral histories (contained on 6 cassette tapes) relating to Mullard Research Laboratories, comprise interviews with former staff who had worked at the laboratory at varying times between the 1940s and 1980s.
Mullard, the British manufacturer of electronic components and domestic appliances, was founded in London in 1920, but by 1927 its entire shareholding had been bought by Philips of the Netherlands.
In the mid-1940s Philips had its main research facility at Eindhoven in the Netherlands. In November 1946 it set up an English laboratory, the Mullard Electronic Research Laboratory (MERL), in Redhill, Surrey, under Dr Christopher Bareford. Then in 1948 an addition was made by adding an existing Mullard laboratory based at Mitcham, called the Vacuum Physics Laboratory (VPL), which was then moved down to Redhill and was linked with Dr Bareford's laboratory. The two laboratories operated under a joint management comprising Bareford and VPL's George Knott.
The two laboratories were run separately until 1955 when their management was unified and George Knott departed. The Vacuum Physics Laboratory effectively came to an end around this time as Mullard's Southampton factory was set up in 1956 specifically to produce semiconductor devices (under its first Managing Director Jimmy Jenkins - ex group leader at VPL). What remained of VPL was incorporated into the Mullard Electronic Research Laboratory which then became known as the Mullard Research Laboratories (MRL)
The Directors of Research at MERL/MRL were;
1. Dr Christopher Bareford - Director from 1946 to 1953.
2. Peter Trier - Director from 1953 to 1969.
3. Kurt Hoselitz - Director from 1969 to 1976.
4. Norman Goddard - Director from 1976 to 1984.
Although Philips continued to use the brand name 'Mullard' in the UK until 1988, the Mullard Research Laboratories name was changed to the Philips Research Laboratories 1 June 1977 during Norman Goddard's time as Director.
The interviews were conducted by Maria Watkins (1918-2010), a Fellow of the IEE (joined as a Student member in 1940), who was also the wife of former Mullard Research Laboratories employee, Dr Tom Watkins. The interviews took place in June 1999.
Exent
6 Cassette Tapes
Persons keyword
Conditions governing access
Open
Level of description
sub-fonds