On the opto-electronics side our main achievements were in the field of glass fibre technology led by Alec Gambling, the work of whose team was to be honoured nationally and internationally, including his own election as a Fellow of the Royal Society and to the Royal Academy of Engineering. The group remained a world leader as the field moved on into coated and doped technology, attracting the attention of many world-wide companies including Nippon Sheet Glass and Pirelli.

At various times the team held the world record for fibre quality, achieved by a cleverly constructed precisely controlled drawing rig in which fibre diameter and uniformity were controlled to a degree that had yet to be matched by others. A key member of the team throughout, who became Pirelli Fellow in 1971, was David Payne, who, like Alec, was also to become an FRS and FREng and has recently been honoured by his nomination for the international Millennium Technology prize. This recognised his work, with others, on the development of the “erbium-doped fibre amplifier” which has helped usher in the information age by enabling information to be carried over glass-fibre cables for hundreds of miles.

The quantum electronics and laser group was led by Bob Smith, later to become the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Kingston. Inter alia the group did important pioneering work on tuneable infra-red lasers. This part of the team was largely accommodated at this period in an array of old army hospital wards, which had escaped demolition after the First World War. Nonetheless, they were home to some first rate scientific work. Unfortunately they succumbed to a disastrous fire in 1971 that caused, inevitably, some loss of momentum in that work. Much valuable equipment, as well as many research records, was lost in the fire, and on the morning after only one smile was to be seen – on the face of a Japanese research student who when asked to explain said “yes” he had lost his notes, but fires were so common in Japan that he always kept a duplicate set in his lodgings just in case!