Colin Baron (20 May 1921 – 7 November 1987) was a British engineer from

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

who designed weapon systems, namely anti-aircraft missiles (

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

s), for the Ministry of Defence (UK).

Early life

He was the son of John Baron and Dorothy Crumpler. He was born in

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. He attended a boys'

grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary school ...

( Carlton Bolling College since 1977) in the south-east of

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, then in the West Riding. From the

University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...

he gained a BSc in Physics 1941 and an MSc in 1947.

Career

Royal Radar Establishment

At the

RRE The Royal Radar Establishment was a research centre in Malvern, Worcestershire in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1953 as the Radar Research Establishment by the merger of the Air Ministry's Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) a ...

he did research on microwaves, which led to him becoming a division leader on guided weapons. Rapier Field Standard C (FSC) MOD 45114028

Royal Aircraft Establishment

At the RAE he became Head of the Guided Weapons Assessment Research Group in 1966. He later became Head of Avionics in 1970, then Flight Systems in 1974.

Rapier missile

From 1958 he had worked with Cambridge-educated

John Twinn John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

in developing an affordable guided

missile In military terminology, a missile is a guided airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight usually by a jet engine or rocket motor. Missiles are thus also called guided missiles or guided rockets (when a previously unguided rocket i ...

that could knock out low-flying aircraft. The Army was more interested in artillery with

proximity fuse A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a Fuze (munitions), fuze that detonates an Explosive material, explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such ...

s. The cost of providing a missile with

radar guidance Radar guidance or radar-guided may refer to: * Active radar guidance * Semi-active radar guidance * Passive radar guidance * Radar altimeter A radar altimeter (RA), also called a radio altimeter (RALT), electronic altimeter, reflection altimeter ...

was an expensive solution. The solution was to employ a '' Command to Line of Sight Guidance System'' (CLOS), whereby the missile contained no radar. The missile system had a system that optically tracked the aircraft and missile. It was given to

BAC BAC or Bac may refer to: Places * Bac, a village in Montenegro * Baile Átha Cliath, Irish language name for Dublin city. * Bîc River, aka ''Bâc River'', a Moldovan river * Baç Bridge, bridge in Turkey * Barnes County Municipal Airport (ICAO a ...

who developed it further as the

Rapier missile Rapier is a surface-to-air missile developed for the British Army to replace their towed Bofors 40/L70 anti-aircraft guns. The system is unusual as it uses a manual optical guidance system, sending guidance commands to the missile in flight over ...

; it entered service in 1971.

Personal life

He married Margaret Whalley in 1942 in Bradford; they had a son (born 1944) and daughter (born 1943). He lived in Upton-upon-Severn. He married Anita Hale in 1961 in

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

; he had a step-son. In his later life he lived in

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. He died at the age of 66.

References

* ''Times'' obituary Saturday 14 November 1987, page 12 {{DEFAULTSORT:Baron, Colin 1921 births 1987 deaths Alumni of the University of Leeds British Aircraft Corporation Civil servants in the Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom) Military research of the United Kingdom Engineers from Bradford People from Nottingham English engineers