W. A. S. Butement
| W. A. S. Butement | |
|---|---|
Ursula and Alan Butement (1971)
|
|
| Chief Defence Scientist of Australia | |
|
In office 1949–1967 |
|
| Succeeded by | Arthur Wills |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
William Alan Stewart Butement 18 August 1904 Masterton, New Zealand |
| Died | 25 January 1990 (aged 85) Richmond, Victoria |
| Spouse(s) | Ursula Florence Alberta Parish (m. 1933) |
William Alan Stewart Butement CBE (18 August 1904 – 25 January 1990) was a defence scientist and public servant. A native of New Zealand, he made extensive contributions to radar development in Great Britain during World War II, served as the first chief scientist for the Australian Defence Scientific Service, then ended his professional career with a research position in private business.
Alan Butement was born at Masterton, New Zealand, the son of New Zealand-born William Butement, physician and surgeon, and his English-born wife Amy Louise Stewart. When Alan was age eight, the family moved to Sydney, where he started at The Scots College. After a year, the family moved again, this time to London, England. He graduated from University College School and then studied at University College, University of London, where he attended lectures by Edward Victor Appleton and received the BSc degree in physics in 1926. He followed this as a research student for two years.He married Ursula Florence Alberta Parish on 17 June 1933.
In 1928, Butement joined the War Office's Signals Experimental Establishment (SEE) at Woolwich, London, as a Scientific Officer, developing radio equipment for the British Army. He and an associate, P. E. Pollard, conceived a radio apparatus for the detection of ships. A breadboard test unit, operating at 50 cm (600 MHz) and using pulsed modulation, gave successful laboratory results, but was not of interest to War Office officials. Nevertheless, in January 1931, a writeup on the apparatus was entered in the Inventions Book maintained by the Royal Engineers. This is the first official record in Great Britain of the technology that would eventually become radar.
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