PROJECT FUR HAT 1964

In early 1964 we came to the Acceptance Phase of the Project.  There were a wide range of acceptance teats, which called for a strong level of management.  I was back in Sweden, this time with Joyce and the children, with overall systems responsibility.  Chris Bagguley was in charge of the installation team, and Tom Gaskell produced the Acceptance Specification.  We had regular meetings, and when the three of us were together it was known as a 'COINC'.  This was a term used in the logic design of the system, and seemed appropriate for our joint togetherness.  We worked long hours, but we made time to be with our families, and it was a happy time for us as a family.  We lived at Kunsangen, in a summer house beside a lake which was frozen. Here are some pics of us as a family, and with the Zimmermans, an American family who were working as Christian missionaries in Sweden.  We got to know them at the church where we went on Sundays.  It was a very strong friendship

 PROJECT FUR HAT SWEDEN 1963 and 1964

I had been working on Fur Hat at Baddow since 1959, and by 1963 the installation phase had commenced.  Fur Hat was a major data handling and display project for the Royal Swedish Airforce. It was unique in many ways, but mainly because there was no pre-commissioning stage in the UK - the whole system was installed in Sweden.  I went to Sweden to assist in this work as a systems engineer., as I had a good understanding of the complex system interfaces. I can't show any work pictures because of the high security.  All I can say is the system was installed in an underground secret bunker, whose existence seemed to be known by the people in the nearby villages1  I left Joyce and the children in the UK while I was away for a few weeks.  Here are some pictures Joyce sent me to remind me of home!

If you ask the question 'Where were you when President Kennedy was assassinated 

on 22 November 1963?' I would reply that I was in Sweden.  I remember how shocked  my American friends were - as we all were.

 1963.  At 55 Lady Lane with Susan and Andrew.

 8th October 1962  We got a telegram to say that Mum and Dad were coming back to Chelmsford, due to Mum's mental illness.  I went to the Isle of Wight to help them return, and drove us all in their car.  I remember all was well until we got home, and then we had a flat tyre!  I'm sure the angels were watching over us!  But it was a very stressful time.

Until then, they were living in a very remote cottage, but subsequently moved to a flat in Ryde.

I guess we visited them sometime in 1962, and so did Joyce's parents, as shown by these photographs.

Here is a photo at the flat in Ryde (not very clear!)

 23 November 1961.  We completed the purchase of 55 Lady Lane.  This was a bigger, detached, house, but needed a lot of work before we could move in.  We added an extension, which gave us a bigger kitchen and an extra bedroom.  In those days you could draw up plans and make an application for planning permission without all the bureaucracy of today!  But it must have been hard for Joyce with a six-month old baby!  We were very grateful  that our friends Robin and Rita Catlin allowed us to stay with them until the work was more or less completed.

  

Summer 1961   We went to the Isle of Wight to visit Mum and Dad.  Dad had retired from work at Warley Hospital on 30th. June 1959, and had moved to the Isle of Wight soon afterwards - probably in 1960.  

Here we are on the ferry!

Mum enjoyed meeting her new grandchildren!

 

8th May 1961  Birth of our second child - Andrew John Lancaster.  Andrew was born at home, which was better for Joyce and for us all..

 SUNDAY 26TH APRIL 1959  Joyce and I took Susan to Brentwood Baptist Church for an Infant Dedication Service, conducted by Rev Gauldie Smith (we don't do Infant Baptisms in the Baptist Church!)  This was the first time we had been back to our home church since we were married.  We didn't have a car then, and we had become involved in a Methodist Church which was meeting in homes on the Moulsham Lodge estate where we lived.

 10 MARCH 1959  Our first child, Susan Mary Lancaster, was born at St. John's Hospital. I remember Joyce being taken away by ambulance.  In those days, husbands weren't allowed to be with their wives during the birth, so Joyce had to endure the pain and trauma of all the stages leading up to a first birth alone, and it must have been a terrifying experience!  Another rule in those days was that the mother and baby couldn't leave hospital until the cord came off.  So we were uncertain whether we would be able to attend the marriage of my sister Jean and Melvyn Sach, which took place about two weeks after the birth of Susan.  But we did make it in the end!

   

 12 August 1958  I'm back in Bridlington again - this time for full-scale trials for the WINKLE project.  The Project Manager was Dr. Tom Straker, and I remember some of the team members were Wilbur Wright, Dr. Steve Forte, Pat Sergeant and John Sutherland, who later became Managing Director of Marconi Radar Systems.  There were two major sites, at Bempton in Yorkshire, and Cley-next-the-Sea, near Holt, North Norfolk.  There was also a fixed 'noise' generator at RAF Stenigot in Lincolnshire.  Mike Steeds was sent off to maintain this.

I'm reading from a letter I wrote to Joyce from the Expanse Hotel, and which Joyce kept. Amazing to read what I wrote all those years ago!  I was concerned that Joyce felt unwell on the train from Chelmsford to Brentwood - she was staying with her parents while I was away.  From my comments, and from the arithmetic, it's clear she was pregnant with our first baby - Sue, who is now a grandmother! 

One task I was given was to take a spare unit from Bempton to the site in Norfolk.  I travelled by train, changing several times, and eventually arrived at Holt via Fakenham.  This of course was before the Beeching cuts!  I remember walking on the beach at Cley-next-the-Sea, chatting to Ian Donaldson, who later became my boss.

 15 March 1958  Joyce and I were married at King's Road Baptist Church, Brentwood, by Rev Gauldie Smith. Our 'official' wedding photographs were taken by Larry Morgan, our favourite photographer just down Kings Road, and they are of course monochrome. He sited his camera in the middle of Kings Road to take the large family group.  He was right in the path of a double decker bus coming down the road, but the driver didn't mind a bit!  My best man Jim Spearing took these with his colour camera, which was the latest thing at the time.  Many thanks, Jim!

 

We had a great Reception with friends and family in the Kings Hall, and then left by train for our Honeymoon in Cromer.  This photo was taken by Larry Morgan at the Reception, and the picture behind us is a copy of a well-known painting of Jesus looking at the Apostle Peter at the time just before His crucifixion.  We could have removed it, but decided to keep it in our wedding photograph, as a sign that we wanted to have Jesus in the centre of our future life together.  We always tried to follow that principle throughout the 44 years we were able to spend together, and He never let us down.

After our honeymoon, we came to live in our first home, at 19 Rose Glen, a brand-new semi-detached house on the Moulsham Lodge Estate in Chelmsford.

  This was convenient for me, as I worked in Chelmsford, so there was no need for me to travel, as I did before we were married.  Also. houses in Brentwood were more expensive than Chelmsford, so this helped us make the decision where we should live. We were blessed to be able to afford this at the start of our married life, thinking of the huge difficulties young couples have today to start on the housing ladder.  We had the basic furniture for kitchen, dining room and bedroom, but no fridge, hoover or carpet on the stairs, items that would be considered basic today!  But we were happy, and grateful to have our own home and permanent work to bring home just enough money each month.

October 1957  By this time I was working on a research project which had reached the stage of overall  system testing.  I had moved on to looking after the radar turning servo at Bempton Radar Station (no longer in existence since 1972). Earlier subsystem tests had been done at Bushey Hill, near Chelmsford using the radar there. I slept in a caravan in a nearby field, working shifts with Bernard Whitehead, another young engineer.  By October I was in Bempton, staying at the Expanse Hotel, Bridlington,

  So although Joyce and I were engaged, I was away, firstly at Bushey Hill, and then at Bempton!  I have the letters I sent her, plus a postcard of the hotel, which Joyce had kept.  I'm sorry to say I didn't keep her replies!    

 July 1955 I started back at the Marconi Research Laboratories the following Monday.  I was working in Section C under Roger Shipway, alongside such worthies as Ben Starksfield, Len Whitaker and Ron Ward, and also Arthur Young. We were designing a 21 inch PPI radar display, to be mounted horizontally, in conference mode.  I remember I had a lash-up chassis I was working on, which was mounted rather precariously. Arthur came to see how I was getting on, and was a bit scared by the 400 volts potential which he thought was a bit dangerous!  

I don't remember having any problem settling back to civilian life.  I was living with my parents and sister Jean at 19 Warley-Wood Crescent, Crescent Road, Brentwood. 

I walked to the Railway Station each morning, caught a bus to Chelmsford, then another bus to West Hanningfield Road, Great Baddow, to the Research Laboratories. I went to the Baptist Church on Sundays, and to the Mid-week Prayer Meeting, which was normal in those days.  I was Secretary of the Christian Endeavour Society, and soon got elected to the Diaconate.  I think at one time my father Victor Lancaster and I were Deacons at the same time - two trouble-makers together!

I was soon thinking seriously about courting, and, after a couple of false starts, by 1957 I was engaged to be married to Joyce Church.  That was the best decision I ever made, and we were married by Rev Gauldie Smith at the Baptist Church on 15th. March 1958