Sir James Redmond

Sir James Redmond (8 November 1918 – 17 October 1999) was a British engineer. One of the pioneers of modern public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, he spent the greater part of his career with the Engineering Department of the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) rising all the way through the ranks from vision mixer to Director of Engineering and was involved in overseeing most of the technical developments which made modern television broadcasting possible. He was one of the engineers responsible for the successful development of live outside broadcasting, satellite transmission, 625 line television and colour television as well as the birth of the Eurovision Network and the Open University.

The son of an Irish railwayman and a Scottish miner's daughter, Jim Redmond was born in Burnbridge Muiravonside near Linlithgow. He was educated at Graeme High School Falkirk and the Caledonian Wireless College Edinburgh before going to sea at the age of seventeen as a wireless operator with the Marconi Company. Tired of constant travel, he spent a brief spell with the Post Office Engineering Department and the BBC in Edinburgh before joining the new television service at Alexandra Palace, London in 1937 as a vision mixer under the direction of Thornton 'Tony' Bridgewater.

When the Second World War broke out he returned to the Merchant Navy as a wireless operator and spent two years on hazardous convoy duty with the Blue Funnel Line before transferring to a shore job in Birkenhead supervising the maintenance and repair of ships' radio and radar equipment. Although Redmond was not an actor the Crown Film Unit director Pat Jackson cast him as a radio operator in the acclaimed Technicolor drama-documentary Western Approaches which was released in 1944.

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