Douglas Wellesley Morrell - Career

Career

Douglas joined Marconi as an installation engineer in 1938, and would go on to travel around the British Empire throughout the war years installing radio direction-finding equipment as part of the war effort.

After the war, Douglas went on to work for Redifon as a sales engineer. It was with Redifon that he met Ray Brown, who would eventually join Calder Cunningham in starting Racal in 1950.

In April 1953, Douglas left Redifon to join Racal as their first sales manager, at the invitation of Ray Brown. Douglas became an investor and joined the board of directors in 1955. Douglas was instrumental in negotiating an exclusive licencing agreement between Racal and the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, which had invented an improved high frequency receiver circuitry, in a Racal radio set that eventually "became the standard HF receiver for all the armed forces and monitoring agencies of the United Kingdom".

When he retired in 1982, Douglas was a Deputy Managing Director, though he remained closely involved in the company's activities during his early retirement in Germany.

During his lengthy career, Douglas became a member of the Society of British Aerospace Companies, and of the Institution of Electrical Engineers, having first joined as a Member in 1936, later becoming a Fellow in 1962.

Douglas was also a long serving Liveryman with the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers, having been first clothed in the livery on 14 November 1961.