OBITUARIES

SIR CLIFFORD CORNFORD

Sir Clifford Cornford , KCB, Chief of Defence Procurement, Ministry of Defence, 1977-80 , died on May 6 aged 81. He was born on Februarys 1918. C lifford Cornford was a bril - liant mathematician who had an outstanding early career in defence science, beginning

in the war years when he made a vital contribution to the accuracy of RAF bombing. Later he became known among senior military and civilian colleagues for his carefu lly argued advice to ministers on defence policy issues. In the late 1970s he was also responsible for the procurement of equipment and defence systems for all three Services. In this capacity he gained the confidence of the defence industry which recognised his under - standing of its problems in a world of rapid technical change. In the war years, while analysing bombing operations over Germany, he discovered an incompatibility between the map systems of the UK and those of the Continent which was causing significant errors in the co-ordinates of the same landmark. Complicated carto - graphic corrections were essential to avoid degradation of the accuracy of the new Oboe bombing system. With Dr F. E. Jones, he presented a paper to the Institution of Electrical Engineers describing the use of Oboe to measure the variation in the velocity of radio

waves with height . His mathematical underpinning of new bombing tech - niques could not be recognised publicly at the time, but later brought him a well-deserved award. Edward Clifford Cornford was edu - cated at Kimbolton School and Jesus College, Cambridge, where he graduat - ed in mathematics. In...