Sir James Redmond (8 November 1918 – 17 October 1999) was a British engineer. One of the pioneers of modern public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, he spent the greater part of his career with the Engineering Department of the

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(British Broadcasting Corporation) rising all the way through the ranks from vision mixer to Director of Engineering and was involved in overseeing most of the technical developments which made modern

television broadcasting A television network or television broadcaster is a telecommunications network for distribution of television program content, where a central operation provides programming to many television stations or pay television providers. Until the mid-1 ...

possible. He was one of the engineers responsible for the successful development of live outside broadcasting,

satellite transmission A communications satellite is an artificial satellite that relays and amplifies radio telecommunication signals via a transponder; it creates a communication channel between a source transmitter and a receiver at different locations on Earth. C ...

, 625 line television and colour television as well as the birth of the Eurovision Network and the

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by number of students. The majority of the OU's undergraduate students are based in the United Kingdom and principally study off- ...

Biography

The son of an Irish railwayman and a Scottish miner's daughter, Jim Redmond was born in Burnbridge Muiravonside near Linlithgow. He was educated at Graeme High School

Falkirk Falkirk ( gd, An Eaglais Bhreac, sco, Fawkirk) is a large town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a ...

and the Caledonian Wireless College

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

before going to sea at the age of seventeen as a wireless operator with the

Marconi Company The Marconi Company was a British telecommunications and engineering company that did business under that name from 1963 to 1987. Its roots were in the Wireless Telegraph & Signal Company founded by Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi in 1897 ...

. Tired of constant travel, he spent a brief spell with the Post Office Engineering Department and the BBC in Edinburgh before joining the new television service at

Alexandra Palace Alexandra Palace is a Grade II listed entertainment and sports venue in London, situated between Wood Green and Muswell Hill in the London Borough of Haringey. It is built on the site of Tottenham Wood and the later Tottenham Wood Farm. Origi ...

, London in 1937 as a vision mixer under the direction of Thornton 'Tony' Bridgewater. When 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 ...

broke out he returned to the Merchant Navy as a wireless operator and spent two years on hazardous convoy duty with the Blue Funnel Line before transferring to a shore job in

Birkenhead Birkenhead (; cy, Penbedw) is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, Merseyside, England; historically, it was part of Cheshire until 1974. The town is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the south bank of the River Mersey, opposite Liver ...

supervising the maintenance and repair of ships' radio and radar equipment. Although Redmond was not an actor the

Crown Film Unit The Crown Film Unit was an organisation within the British Government's Ministry of Information during the Second World War. Formerly the GPO Film Unit it became the Crown Film Unit in 1940. Its remit was to make films for the general public in ...

director

Pat Jackson Patrick Douglas Selmes Jackson (26 March 1916 – 3 June 2011) was an English film and television director. Biography Born in Eltham, to a formerly affluent family which was severely affected by the Wall Street Crash in 1929, and his father' ...

cast him as a radio operator in the acclaimed Technicolor drama-documentary '' Western Approaches'' which was released in 1944. He married Joan Morris, a secretary at the Blue Funnel Line in 1942. After the war they returned to London and settled first in Muswell Hill and then Highgate. They had two children. His sister Allison married Malcolm Shepherd who became Baron Shepherd of Spalding a prominent British Labour Party politician. Redmond returned to the BBC at the war's end and rose steadily through the ranks. He took part in the coverage of the

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

in 1951, the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and the

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...

University

Boat Race Boat racing is a sport in which boats, or other types of watercraft, race on water. Boat racing powered by oars is recorded as having occurred in ancient Egypt, and it is likely that people have engaged in races involving boats and other wate ...

. He was a senior engineer in the Planning and Installation Department in the 1950s before becoming Senior Superintendent Engineer Television in 1963, Assistant Director of Engineering in 1967 and succeeding Sir Francis McLean as Director of Engineering in 1968. As Senior Superintendent Engineer, he was responsible for the construction of new transmitters to spread the television network across the UK. In 1963 he spent some time in Tokyo, Japan preparing the broadcasting of the following year's Olympic Games. From 1964 he served on the committee that advised the BBC on establishing television channel

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...

. This involved resolving a number of complicated technical problems. The new channel was to be broadcast on 625 lines instead of the old 405 line system and had to be ready to accommodate the impending switch from black and white to colour. Programmes had to be capable of being viewed on either the old 405 line or new 625 line sets. To make matters worse both channels had to be able to broadcast US-made programmes which were made using an altogether different system and which were already transmitted in a crude colour system which Redmond derided as 'Mickey Mouse'. The technical problems were overcome by the opening night of BBC2 in 1964 but the opening was wrecked by a power cut throughout central London. Grave of Sir James Redmond in Highgate Cemetery

Grave of Sir James Redmond in Highgate Cemetery

During his time as Director of Engineering Redmond oversaw the introduction of colour broadcasting in 1970 and pushed for the BBC to adopt digital signalling and supported the introduction of

Ceefax Ceefax (, punning on "seeing facts") was the world's first teletext information service and a forerunner to the current BBC Red Button service. Ceefax was started by the BBC in 1974 and ended, after 38 years of broadcasting, at 23:32:19 BST ( ...

. He took overall responsibility for broadcasting the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

from London in 1968 although he privately detested the event. To his chagrin diplomatic reasons forced him to attend the actual concert and he was delighted when

Cliff Richard Sir Cliff Richard (born Harry Rodger Webb; 14 October 1940) is an Indian-born British musican, singer, producer, entrepreneur and philanthropist who holds both British and Barbadian citizenship. He has total sales of over 21.5 million s ...

's "

Congratulations Congratulations may refer to: Film and television *'' Congratulations: 50 Years of the Eurovision Song Contest'', 2005 television programme to commemorate its fiftieth anniversary Music Albums * ''Congratulations'' (album), an album by ...

" was beaten into second place by the Spanish contestant Massiel as this meant he would not have to stage the contest again the following year. Redmond was a natural supporter of the

as he had gained most of his engineering qualifications at night school and he put all the resources at his disposal into ensuring its success. He was a strong supporter of the BBC's engineering training centre at Wood Norton near

Evesham Evesham () is a market town and parish in the Wychavon district of Worcestershire, in the West Midlands region of England. It is located roughly equidistant between Worcester, Cheltenham and Stratford-upon-Avon. It lies within the Vale of Evesha ...

and of the BBC Research Department. Not all the ideas he supported were successful. He was an enthusiast for quadrophonic sound and had a system set up in his home. As well as working for the BBC Redmond was an extremely active member of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. He was appointed President of the IEE in 1978 and was appointed a Fellow of the

Royal Academy of Engineering The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAEng) is the United Kingdom's national academy of engineering. The Academy was founded in June 1976 as the Fellowship of Engineering with support from Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, who became the first senior ...

in the same year. In 1980 he presented the

Bernard Price Memorial Lecture The Bernard Price Memorial Lecture is the premier annual lecture of the South African Institute of Electrical Engineers. It is of general scientific or engineering interest and is given by an invited guest, often from overseas, at several of the m ...

. He became an Honorary Fellow of the IEE in 1989. He retired from the BBC in 1979 and was made a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

in that year's New Year's Honours' List. Equally active in retirement as when he was in work, Redmond served on the Council of the

from 1981–1995 and on the Council of

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

from 1980–1988. Both universities awarded him honorary doctorates. He also acted as a consultant to various private companies. He died on 17 October 1999 and his ashes were buried on the eastern side of

Highgate Cemetery Highgate Cemetery is a place of burial in north London, England. There are approximately 170,000 people buried in around 53,000 graves across the West and East Cemeteries. Highgate Cemetery is notable both for some of the people buried there as ...

. After his death, his family donated his large collection of technical papers to the Institution of Engineering and Technology archive. They include many BBC Research Department papers and a copy of the "Black Book" – a tutorial with circuit diagrams of the original Alexandra Palace installation written by Douglas Birkinshaw.

Publications

Broadcasting the Developing Technology Inaugural Address as IEE President (The Proceedings of the IEE Vol 126 No 1 1979)

Sources

*Who's Who 1979 *The Independent 20.10.99 (obituary) *The Scotsman 29.10.99 (obituary) *The Times 30.11.99 (obituary) *BBC Film History Archive 22.8.90 (filmed memoirs) *'A Retake Please!' Pat Jackson Liverpool University Press and Royal Naval Museum Publications 1999 on the making of 'Western Approaches' *'Western Approaches' DVD Imperial War Museum 2004. Region Code 2 only DD06067

External links

*A copy of the Times obituary http://www.nrcdxas.org/articles/sirjames.html *Internet Movie Database – Western Approaches https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0037455/ *Brunel University listing of honorary graduates – https://web.archive.org/web/20061005040156/http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/hongrads/1991/redmond {{DEFAULTSORT:Redmond, James 1918 births 1999 deaths Knights Bachelor BBC executives British Merchant Navy personnel of World War II People associated with the Open University People associated with Brunel University London Fellows of the Royal Academy of Engineering Burials at Highgate Cemetery Scottish television executives Scottish sailors People from West Lothian Scottish electrical engineers People educated at Graeme High School 20th-century Scottish businesspeople