HEREFORDSHIRE'S OWN SCIENTIFIC GENIUS - WINFORTON HOUSE

Most factions within the Hereford VBCW have their very own "scientific genius" to hand, essential for producing (or explaining) the odd (sometimes very odd) "secret weapon" occasionally featured in "Big Games" - one thinks of Professor Fergal McGonagall for HMG, the now marooned Professor Dave Ross of the BUF, Engineer Scott of the Ludlow Anglicans, and a host of others. Yet truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction....

Some time ago, we looked at "Airfields of the VBCW", relying on the seminal "Herefordshire & Worcestershire Airfields in the Second World War" by Robin J. Brooks (pub. Countryside Books, Newbury (2006)). However, save for Shobdon Airfield, captured by Comrade Colonel Professor Winter's Communist Front at the Second Battle of Shobdon, few VBCW factions have shown any great interest in developing (or acquiring) their own airfield. As noted above, the opposite is true in the field of scientific geniuses. Pps.17-18 of Brooks may therefore be of interest:

“Malvern, in Worcestershire, is known as “radar country”, for it was here that the early experiments in Radio Direction Finding and radar-equipped navigational aids were carried out, experiments that continue today in the same establishment. The technique of radar detection was developed in various ways in order to help the airmen who flew in our dangerous skies. Defford airfield was to play a definitive part in these flying experiments.

This was also the scientists’ war, and deep in the Herefordshire countryside another invention that would be instrumental in assisting the war effort, and radar in particular, was being perfected. Sir Thomas Merton is today almost unheard-of, yet one of his inventions was the long persistence radar screen, a kind of cathode ray tube. Unfortunately, someone else came up with the idea a year later and won the patent. The screen was created in two bungalows known as the ‘Laboratories’ adjoining a large property by the name of Winforton House in west Herefordshire. Purchased by Sir Thomas in 1923, it became a secret wartime base for much scientific research……………

“……..A later discovery involved the use of a special gas which, when applied to the engine of a fighter aircraft, would increase its top speed by about 45mph. This application was to be used to great effect during the battle with Hitler’s revenge weapon, the V1 rocket. On 24 August 1944, out of 101 V1s launched against the UK on that day, 97 were brought down, many by fighter aircraft with gas-boosted engines. A light-reducing black paint was also perfected by Sir Thomas in the ‘Laboratories’. When applied to bomber aircraft, this paint reduced the light reflected from the fuselage if caught in the beam of a searchlight to less than 1%.

            Secluded as it was, Winforton House played host to many of the leading scientists of the day. Henry Tizard and Barnes Wallis were among the frequent visitors there, together with Lords Cherwell and Berkeley. Sir Thomas Merton’s inventions played a major part in the defeat of Nazi Germany and Winforton House stands today as a testament to an unsung hero of scientific intelligence.”