Children weren't the only evacuees from Essex in the last war - employees of Marconi too were shifted to safety to carry on their vital work, discovers TOM KING

The name Marconi remains one to be reckoned with in south Essex, in the 21st as much in the previous century - a century which Marconi and all its works dominated to such an extent.

Hundreds of people in the county still work in companies whose nameplates and letterheads recall the great pioneer of radio.

In 1912, Guglielmo Marconi set up the world's First wireless factory in Chelmsford, and in 1920 made the world's first public broadcasts from Writtle. The modern age of telecommunications had been born - in Essex.

Yet another aspect of Marconi's work remains far less known. A handful of Essex scientists and factory workers played a major role in turning the tide of the World War Two.

In 1944, Queen Elizabeth, now Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, paid a secret visit to Malvern, in Worcestershire. It was to this peaceful spa town that Essex Marconi's people had decamped, safely out of the range of the Luftwaffe.

Her visit was a tacit acknowledgement of something that could never be revealed publicly. Time and again in those critical years since 1939, Marconi products had saved Britain from disaster.

One of Guglielmo Marconi's key discoveries was that radio waves reflect off solid objects. This was crucial to his development of ship-to-shore wireless telegraphy and public broadcasting. But it also had a significant defence aspect.

Britain in the Thirties was every bit as conscious of impending Armageddon as it was in the post-nuclear years of the Cold War.

The power of the plane seemed unconquerable. In 1934, a mock air-raid on London seemed to confirm Stanley Baldwin's dire prediction that "the bomber will always get through." Great cities could be devastated in a few hours, and it seemed that nothing could save them.

The usual mixture of visionaries, cranks and level-headed scientists set to work to tackle this apocalyptic scenario. A high-powered committee was set up to winnow out the more effective ideas.

The committee swiftly rejected a proposal for death-rays, borrowed from Saturday morning children's cinema-serials like Flash Gordon. But the scientists pounced on another idea.

Using the bounce effect developed by Marconi, incoming aeroplanes could be located by radio.

On the strength of this principle, a chain of new structures was constructed along the east coast. Collectively, these mysterious edifices were referred to as Chain Home.

They housed equipment produced on an industrial basis by Marconi, and developed originally for radio. The result, however, was something new - radar.

"Chain Home saved us from defeat by spotting attackers and ensuring that our scarce planes - and even fewer pilots - could stay on the ground until required," writes David Robertson, a military-scientific historian.

Radar, of course, had many other wartime roles. Sir Stafford Cripps claimed that radar "played a greater part in the war than the atom bomb."

The Chief of Staff to the Home Fleet called it "the biggest thing that happened to the Navy since we changed from sail to steam."

An exhibition currently on display in Malvern details the development of "the magic ear" and the grown-up evacuees from Essex who helped to make it happen.

It also pays tribute, along the way, to Marconi himself - a man who, even more than the founder of Rossi's ice-cream, can lay claim to be the greatest Essex-Italian in history.

We would be interested to hear from local readers involved with wartime radar. Write to Memories, Evening Echo, Chester Hall Lane, Basildon, SS14 3BL, or telephone Tom King on 07887 483432.

(Right) Secret visit - Queen Elizabeth, now the Queen Mother, paid a visit to Essex Marconi workers when they were relocated away from bombing raids in the Second World War

(Left) All ears - even before the start of the Second World War Chelmsford company Marconi were in the business of defence. In the First World War this sound locator was developed, to detect distant aircraft by amplifying the sound of their engines. Later work by Marconi scientists led to the development of radar

Photo: Imperial War Museum

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