Alumni Office discover another inspirational Alumnus, Arnold Frederic Wilkins OBE

The Alumni Office was recently alerted to the fact that Arnold Frederic Wilkins OBE was also an alumnus of The School. Arnold (who died in 1985) was a pioneer in developing the use of radar. On February 26th 1935 he, and a colleague Robert Watson, showed for the first time that aircraft could be detected by bouncing radio waves off them. By 1939 there were 20 stations tracking aircraft at distances up to more than 100 miles, later known as radar. It was this invention more than any other that saved the RAF from defeat in the 1940 Battle of Britain.