The man behind our Space plan

THE man who is planning the Company’s participation in spanning the Atlantic in a split second this summer once took three months to cross from Liverpool to New York.

That was when LEN MATHEWS, M.Brit. I.R.E., Assistant Technical Controller (Commumcations and Outside Broadcasts), was in the Royal Navy aboard an armed merchant-cruiser dodging U-boats in a trans-Atlantic convoy.

Wartime service took Len all over the world setting up maintenance and development sections for radar and radio to be used by the Services.

His job was one of the “hush-hush” type — a Special Service appointment. The knowledge he had was considered to be of such importance that the Admiralty issued him and his colleagues — there were six of them chosen for the job — with “suicide pills” to be taken if captured by the enemy.

The nearest he came to being captured was when his ship was sunk by a Japanese aerial torpedo, but he was lucky enough to be rescued by a Dutch ship. Many of his shipmates were not so fortunate, being picked up by the Japanese and receiving brutal treatment when put ashore at Singapore.

Len went to India, Africa, Australia and America, and served a long period with the Far Eastern Fleet.

When the war ended he joined the BBC where he spent some time in charge of regional control rooms and was subsequently transferred to a group concerned with the expansion of the TV network.

He helped to establish the links between London, Manchester and Scotland and eventually obtained a special assignment that took him into all departments of BBC Television in order that he should gain experience of every facet of the operations.

At one time he attended a course on production, which he has always regarded as great benefit as it enabled him to see the producer’s point of view.

In July 1955 Len came over to ATV to build up a communications department before the company went on the air, and shortly afterwards he took over the OB Department.

LEADING EXPERT

He is now recognised as one of Europe’s leading experts in TV communications.

He planned the links between Moscow and London for the first ITV television exchange with the Soviet. At present his big job outside normal duties is dealing with the way in which trans-Atlantic TV will get to viewers’ screens not only in Britain but also in several Continental countries.

When the satellite TV experiment was announced ITN called on Len to explain to viewers in layman’s language what it was all about. He was also called in as adviser on their Colonel Glenn [John Herschel Glenn Jr (1921–2016), first American to orbit the Earth – Ed] coverage.

He is ATV’s representative on the British Space Development Company’s technical committee.

His paper on “Television Communications Using Earth Satellite Vehicles”, presented to the British Institute of Radio Engineers at Oxford last year, is regarded as one of the most important contributions to knowledge of communications to be made for many years.

A report of the National Association of Educational Broadcasts, submitted to the United States Administration, refers in detail to this paper, and the European Broadcasting Union recommends it to members as an essential authority on television communications.

It is in the family tradition of the family that a Mathews should be taking part in new developments in communication.

Len s grandfather worked on the design of the first-ever submarine cable and his father was a senior engineer at Siemens.

It seemed natural for Len, after attending Birmingham Technical College, to start a student apprenticeship in telecommunications.

Now 45, Len lives at Dartford, Kent. One of his sons, Paul, works in the Company’s Engineering Department at Elstree and the other, 15-year-old Anthony, is studying for his GCE.

SPARE TIME

In his spare time Len has done some painting and drawing. In his younger days he was quite an athlete combining running the mile with playing wing three-quarter at rugby, and also scoring considerable success in the boxing ring as a southpaw lightweight.

A spare-time task which Len considers of great importance nowadays is his work as the examiner for the Television Graduate Examination of the British Institute of Radio Engineers.

He sets the questions and marks the papers which means that most of the young men who will be concerned with the technical future of television in Britain will have gained something from the knowledge of our Len Mathews.