Petersham: radar and operational research 1940-1946 

by J M Lee

50 pages, Second edition, published 2024.

ISBN 978-1-912314-04-1

Petersham was transformed during the Battle of Britain in September 1940, when Anti-Aircraft Command requisitioned the village hall and institute, the vicarage, All Saints Church and Elm Lodge, and then set up radar transmitters on the golf course.

Some of the most important experiments that led to discoveries that made British radar such an effective instrument of war were carried out in Petersham vicarage.

Michael Lee, an emeritus professor of the University of Bristol and a former editor of our journal, Richmond History, tells the story.

This second edition, edited by Robert Smith and Simon Fowler, includes a new, additional appendix by Timothy M M Baker on Petersham as a birthplace of radio astronomy.