b'30 Member News November 2019ObituariesProfessor Les Barclay OBE FREng CEng FIETSeptember 1933July 2019Professor Les Barclay, an IET Fellow and radiowave propagation expert who shaped the radio environmentin which we live today, has died at the age of 85.Les was a familiar face within theIn 2016, Les received the IETs James International Telecommunication UnionR. James Lifetime Achievement (ITU), which globally manages our radio- Award, in recognition of his significant frequency spectrum and satellite orbits.work in radio wave propogation.Chairing ITU committees, conferencesLes began his career as an and study groups, Les shared hisapprentice for E K Cole Ltd, expertise on how radiowaves travel and how theyre affected by the mediumwhere he worked in the Radio in which they travelknowledgeDevelopment Laboratories. which is vital for understanding how radiocommunications systems will work.After gaining a degree from He had a particular interest in ionosphericthe University of London, he propagation - how radiowaves travelmoved into the Television through the Earths upper atmosphere. Research Laboratories.Professor Les Barclay OBE FREng CEng FIETLes contributions extended beyondOfcom). There he became Deputy the field of radiowave propagation.Six years later, he joined an expeditionDirector for Research and Radio His encyclopaedic knowledge of theto the Antarctic with the Royal Society,Technology, managing the agencys workings and procedures of the ITUwhich involved conducting ionosphericresearch programme and overseeing study groups served the UK andresearch. After two years at thethe National Radio Propagation the international community well,Antarctics Halley Bay, he returned toResearch programme, which included particularly when he chaired the first ITUthe UK to work for the Radio Researchthe internationally recognised group at Radiocommunications Assembly in 1993. Station in Slough. There he analysedthe Rutherford Appleton Laboratory. and prepared reports on Antarctic Les also shared knowledge withionospheric studies and wroteAs well as supporting the IEE and committees and professional networksreports on sledging and surveying. ITU, Les served on a committee of the Institution of Electronic andfor the Department of Trade and Radio Engineers and its successor, theIn 1960, Les joined the propagation groupIndustry and an expert group on IEE, which became the IET. For theat Marconi Research Laboratories, wheremobile phones, where his knowledge IEE, he organised and taught a serieshe became head of the ionosphericof radiowave propagation, spectrum of residential courses on radiowavepropagation section. At Marconi, hemanagement and radio regulation was propagation, which proved very populardeveloped manual and computer- vital to the developing technology. and filled a gap left by academic coursesbased systems for predicting medium for an entire generation of engineers.frequency and high frequency systemLes received several awards over the The course lives on in the IET book thatperformance, and techniques for dailycourse of his career, including an OBE Les edited, Propagation of Radiowaves,forecasts of ionospheric conditions. Alsofor services to radiocommunications, now in its third edition and regarded asduring this time, he acted as consultanta Polar Medal for his research in the standard textbook on propagation.to the Local Radio Association. the Antarctic and Fellowship of the In 1977, Les moved to the civil service intoRoyal Academy of Engineering.what became the Radiocommunications Agency (which later merged withFor a full list of obituaries visit:other regulatory bodies to becometheiet.org/mn-obituaries'