We regret to announce that Basil Francis, who was our president in 2015, died on 2 May.
Basil joined what was then Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company in 1939 just after war had been declared and worked in the Installation Design Division that had recently been transferred from London to the research centre at Great Baddow. Here he started a Mechanical Engineering course at Mid Essex Technical College but this was interrupted in 1941 when he volunteered for the RAF. Here he gained his wings and flew various aircraft ending up in Burma before being demobbed in 1946.
He returned to MWT in the drawing office and completed his college training. In the DO he moved up eventually becoming head on the Installation Drawing Office at New Street before retiring in 1989.
His funeral was at Chelmsford Crematorium on Wednesday 30th May and afterwards there was a wake at Little Channels Golf Club.