Stewart Watson CB OBE

STEWART WATSON

Daniel Stewart Watson was a true ‘son of the Manse’, his father a Scottish clergyman. He graduated with first class honours in electrical engineering at Aberdeen University and served a graduate apprenticeship with the BTH Company, Rugby. 

He joined the Royal Naval Scientific Service in 1938 and worked on gunnery radar at the Admiralty Signals Establishment (ASE) where during the Second World War he was particularly involved in solving display problems in gunnery and surface warning radars.  After the war, the story of the work of the radar “back room boys” was told at a symposium held by the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in 1946.  Stewart Watson presented a paper together with John Coales and Hilton Calpine on naval fire control radar which was awarded the John Hopkinson Premium of the Institution.  He also presented a paper on the application of cathode-ray tubes to naval radar, including the invention of various precision ranging systems. He and others at ASE received awards for this work.

Subsequently Watson became the head of the Surface Warning and Fighter Direction Radar Division at the Admiralty Signals Research Establishment whose major occupation was Radar Type 984 and its associated display system in aircraft carriers.  With its innovative target height-finding capability, Type 984 represented a huge advance in the air defence of naval forces. It was one of the earliest examples of effective major project management and its success owed much to Stewart Watson’s clear-minded direction and strength of purpose.

 In 1954 he was one of a select team of three from the UK who were invited to participate in a major study of the continental defence of the United States carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).  In 1956 he was appointed the first chief engineer for the ‘Seaslug’ anti-aircraft missile system and subsequently for all naval guided weapon projects.  The concept of overall systems management when undertaking a complicated enterprise with many component sub-systems was then in its infancy.  Watson became responsible for the co-ordination of the whole weapon system, with the Ministry of Aviation as procurement authority for the missile and the Admiralty the shipborne equipment.  He was conspicuously successful, leading a small staff able to take major policy and technical decisions while maintaining the support of the other authorities. He was appointed OBE.

In 1958, he became head of the whole Weapons Department at the Admiralty Surface Weapons Establishment (ASWE) on Portsdown Hill near Portsmouth, rising to Chief Scientist in 1961.  In 1964 this post was broadened to include headquarters responsibilities as Director of Surface Weapons Research and Development, and in 1966, following the recommendations of the Caldecote Committee, he became the first Director of ASWE and was appointed CB in 1967. He will be long remembered for his wise leadership of the navy’s largest R & D Establishment.

In 1968 Watson moved to the Ministry of Defence as Deputy Chief Scientist (Navy), not without regret at leaving his own establishment.  At the same time he served as head of the Royal Naval Scientific Service (RNSS) and in this capacity he was widely known for the sympathetic though firm manner with which he tackled the multitude of personnel problems that came his way, notably keeping an open door for people with personal difficulties.

Upon the formation of the tri-service Procurement Executive in August 1971 under Sir Derek (later Lord) Rayner, he became Director General Establishments, Resources and Programmes (A) and held this post until his retirement.  In this new organisation he was concerned with the resources and programmes of a large group of R & D Establishments which includes many of the former naval laboratories and also the Royal Radar Establishment at Malvern and the Signals Research and Development Establishment at Christchurch.  Downward pressure on defence funding, here as elsewhere, required much ‘rationalisation’ during his tenure.

He took a leading part in international collaboration in naval research and development, particularly as chairman of the Anglo-French and Anglo-Netherlands Joint Naval Committees.

Stewart Watson’s career was distinguished by the number of occasions which required him to break new ground, either technically or managerially. He was widely recognised as a man of cast-iron professional integrity combined with unforced leadership qualities much admired by his subordinates.

In retirement he involved himself in local activities including the Farnham Society and the Church.  His wife Isobel died in 1992 and he is survived by their son.

Stewart Watson, CB OBE, Director General of Establishments and Resources MoD 1971-73 and head of the Royal Naval Scientific Service, was born on December 11, 1911.  He died on March 15 aged 100.