Sir Edward Clifford Cornford, KCB (6 February 1918 – 6 May 1999) was a British

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

and government scientist. Educated at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

, he entered the

Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom), UK Ministry of Defence (MoD), bef ...

in 1938 as a junior scientific officer. He was part of the Air Warfare Analysis Section from the outset of its existence and throughout the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He rejoined RAE in 1945 and worked on guided weaponry; he served as head of the assessments division from 1951 to 1956, and then head of the guided weapons department. He was chairman of the Defence Research Policy Staff (1961–65), before serving as Chief Scientist (Army) from 1965 to 1968, then Deputy Chief Adviser (Research and Studies) from 1968 to 1969. He was Controller, Guided Weapons and Electronics at the

Ministry of Technology The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...

from 1969 to 1972, and then Controller (Policy) at the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

's Procurement Executive from 1972 to 1975. Cornford was then Chief Executive of the Procurement Executive from 1975 (renamed

Chief of Defence Procurement The Chief of Defence Procurement was a senior post in the British Ministry of Defence. The post-holder was Chief Executive of the MoD Procurement Executive from 1971 until 1999 and then Chief Executive of the Defence Procurement Agency until 2007. I ...

in 1977). He retired in 1980. In retirement, he was a director of the

Post Office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

from 1981 to 1987 and chairman of Raytheon Europe from 1982 to 1991."Sir Clifford Cornford", ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'', 26 May 1999, p. 27. .

References

1918 births 1999 deaths British civil servants British scientists Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Knights Companion of the Order of the Bath {{UK-scientist-stub