Charles Frederick Goodeve

Sir Charles Frederick Goodeve (born February 21, 1904 in Neepawa , Manitoba ; † April 7, 1980 ) was a Canadian chemist who pioneered the field of business research . During the Second World War , he also worked on weapon systems for anti-submarine defense .

Live and act

Goodeve was born in Canada in 1904 to an Anglican clergyman. In 1925 he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of Manitoba and two years later a Master of Science . In the same year, 1927, he received a scholarship to study further at University College London . In 1930 he became a lecturer and in 1937 a reader in physical chemistry . In 1936 he earned his doctorate and was admitted to the Royal Society in 1940 . At the same time, he married the chemist Janet Wallace, who was also part of Goodeve's research group for a while, and the two sons Peter Julian (* 1936) and John Anthony (* 1944) resulted from the marriage.

Goodeve had already joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the early 1930s and was promoted to Lieutenant Commander in 1936. When the war began in 1939, he joined the British naval research facility HMS Vernon in Sheerness and initially worked on methods to reduce the magnetic signature of ship hulls in order to make them less susceptible to magnetically ignited sea ​​mines . The term degaussing (after the unit Gauss for magnetic flux , German equivalent: Magnetischer Eigenenschutz) goes back to Goodeve . From 1940 he also worked on a British version of the 20 mm Oerlikon cannon originally made in Switzerland . Goodeve's work group was also named Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development (DMWD), which soon developed the Hedgehog launcher for anti-submarine defense.

In 1942, Goodeve was appointed Assistant Head of Research and Development by the Admiralty's Third Sea Lord , William Wake-Walker , and oversaw all of the Navy's new developments. For the construction of the Hedgehog launcher, which was used in the course of the war for the sinking of about 50 enemy submarines, Goodeve was awarded an officer of the Order of the British Empire towards the end of the war and in 1946 was promoted to a Knight Bachelor .

After the war, Goodeve became director of the British Iron and Steel Research Association , a research institute for the British metal industry. After he retired in 1969, he became interested in corporate research and is occasionally referred to as one of the founders of these scientific disciplines. From 1968 to 1970 he was also Vice President of the Royal Society.

In 1980, Goodeve died after a fall possibly caused by Parkinson's disease .

literature

• Gerald Pawle: England's Secret War. The battle of the sorcerers 1939-1945 ("The Secret War 1939-1945", 1956). Verlag für Wehrwesen, Frankfurt / M. 1959.

Web links

• Biography of the Naval Museum of Manitoba (English)
• Biographical Memoirs of the Royal Society (English)