Historical material about EMI and colleagues collected by W L Watton including;
01. 'Marconi-EMI television: the system of today and tomorrow'. This Marconi-EMI Television Co Ltd booklet has a reference No. MEMI-1 and is undated. [Digital version available]
02. Page of obituaries from the journal of the IEE, July 1963. Possibly kept for the obituary of Henry Arthur Maish Clark who had worked at EMI. [Digital version available]
03. Page of obituaries from 'electronics & power', October 1966. Possibly kept for the obituary of William Henry Eccles who had joined Marconi's laboratory in 1898 and was a founder member of the Radio Society of Great Britain.
04. Part of 'EMI news' from August 1975, including pages 4 and 5 on the subject of the aerial tower above EMI's Central Research Laboratories since 1936 which was being dismantled.
05. 'EMI news', no.31, March 1963. This issue includes a complete list of the long-service employees who received gold watches from EMI (third of five mass presentations) and which included W L Waton. Inside the issue are 3 press cuttings; a tribute to research leader Bill Connell written by G Lubszynski in 'EMI news', April 1979 [Digital version available]; an article titled, 'a flying bomb hits Hayes factory', undated; and an article from the Middlesex Advertiser and Gazette, dated 29 May 1975, about the dismantling of the EMI Hayes aerial tower.
06. 1986 cutting about the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Television Society awarded to Dr William Percival, Senior Staff Scientist at Thorn EMI Central Research Laboratories.
07. Article from 'Washington post, section C', 18 November 1968. Title is, 'TV station's dignified building plan harmonizes with SW', and refers to Channel 26' hopes to build a new studio and headquarters.
08. Article titled, 'decision on HQ for historic park', from 'the express', 4 September 1997, about Appleton Park and Ditton Park.
09. Cutting from 'EMI news', April 1976, titled, 'TV pioneer who tuned in to early pictures', about Len Burry. [Digital version available]
10. Cutting from February 1979 about 'honours for two EMI men', which refers to Douglas Love and Roy Blythen.
11. Last issue of 'EMI news' before being suspended, number 155, October 1979.
12. Article from 'EMI news' about the retirement of Dr John Best, August/September 1979.
13. Undated article from 'EMI news' about the retirement of 'Percy Fox'.
14. Article from 'EMI news', May 1979 about the retirement of Dr Bernhard Mayo, EMI research pioneer. [Digital version available]
15. EMI's 'electronics post', Spring 1967. Includes the 8-page article 'colour television', which includs the sections; early developments; the new camera; studio equipment; and the lead oxide vidicon.
16. Handwritten 1-page memorandum regarding disclosure of UK classified material, safeguarding of information, and security when carrying sensitive documents, undated.
17. Handwritten 1-page suggested itinerary for a proposed EMI visit to the USA (no dates).
18. Page of obituaries from 'electronics & power', February 1964. Possibly kept for the obituary of John Hardwick who had joined EMI as a research physicist in 1929. [Digital version available]
19. 7-page article by B J Benzimra titled, 'A D Blumlein - an electronics genius', from 'electronics & power', June 1967.
20. 6-page article by R L Smith-Rose titled, 'early days in radio research', from 'electronics & power', July 1967.
21. Page of obituaries from 'electronics & power', July 1965. Possibly kept for the obituary of Sir Edward Victor Appleton.
22. 1-page article by V M Farmer, Weapons Division of EMI Electronics, titled, 'pneumatics and refrigeration', undated.
23. Birth of Marconi centenary issue of 'electronics & power', 2 May 1974. The articles in this issue were based on lectures given at the joint meeting of the IEE Electronics Division and the IERE titled, 'the Marconi heritage', which was held at Savoy Place 25 April 1974.
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Admin. history/Biography
Walter Leslie (Bill) Watton [1907-2004], was born at South Stoneham, Hampshire in 1907, and was the eldest of 5 children. His family moved to Brighton during WWI where Walter was awarded several scholarships. Walter attended Brighton Municipal Technical School where he gained a University of London BSc at the age of 20 in 1927 (presented 9 May 1928, when he was aged 21). Walter then continued to study at Imperial College and was awarded its post graduate Diploma for work in the field of calorimetry. He also became an Associate of the Royal College of Science.
After leaving Imperial College in April 1930, Bill worked for a brief period testing valves in Muswell Hill for Cambridge Instruments before joining Robert Watson-Watt's team at the Radio Research Laboratories in Slough (Bill was interviewed by Robert Watson-Watt).
In January 1935 Bill left the Watson-Watt team to move to EMI at Hayes to work on television receivers and was part of the team that gave the first demonstration of the EMI system to the Postmaster General and the BBC. He also worked on the radio relay system supplied to the BBC for the outside broadcast of the 1937 Coronation.
In November 1939 Bill was transferred back to work on radar devices and other highly secret work and ended up working with Alan Dower Blumlein. Later in WWII Bill was seconded from EMI to the Telecommunications Research Establishment at Malvern.
Following WWII Bill went back to working with EMI on television development and helped to develop the equipment used for colour television. Bill became a Senior Engineer with EMI and by the 1960s was working for EMI's Telemetry Division, Feltham, on military developments and in particular RF characteristics of explosive devices. He pioneered measuring techniques and researches into the behaviour of these devices and was recognised as an expert in this field. This resulted in Bill sitting on a number of Ministry committees concerned with the safety of these devices in which capacity he visited North America and Australia. Bill finally retired from EMI in 1972.
Bill was a member of the IEE for over 50 years. He joined the IEE as an Associate Member in 1947, and became a Member in 1966.
A longer biography, written by Bill's daughter, is available from the IET Archives.
