Tizard, Sir Henry (1885–1959),British chemist and scientific administrator who, after serving as a pilot during the
First World War, was chosen to head the air ministry's committee for the Scientific Survey of Air Defence (later of Air Warfare) in November 1934. The Tizard committee, as it came to be called, first met in January 1935 and subsequently oversaw the development of
Watson-Watt's radio echo system. This became the
radar air defence system which helped win the
battle of Britain and Tizard was also responsible for encouraging the development of airborne radar (see
electronic navigation systems), a possibility he had first suggested in 1936. In June 1940, after expressing his scepticism about the existence of the German
Knickebein beam, he resigned as chief scientific adviser to the air staff. Antipathy between him and Churchill's scientific adviser
Lindemann, led to his talents being underused for the rest of the war, but in September 1940 he led what became known as the Tizard mission to the USA to explain British scientific advances in radar (most notably the
cavity magnetron) and
ASDIC, as well as new developments such as the RDX
explosives and the
proximity fuze. This information enabled much valuable war
matériel to be produced in the USA and established Anglo-American scientific co-operation during the war years which culminated in the
development of the atomic bomb. He was knighted in 1937. See also
scientists at war.
Bibliography
Clark, R. , Tizard (London, 1965).
