This information sign can be found at the north-west corner of St Ninians Square outside the town library in the Angus town of Brechin, and opposite the statue of Sir Robert Watson Watt which was unveiled in 2014. The text reads as follows:
'The statue in St Ninians Square of Sir Robert Alexander Watson Watt FRS celebrates the achievements of a Brechin born man who led the team of brilliant scientists and engineers who were instrumental in developing the use of radar to detect enemy aircraft before they could be seen or heard. Their role in equipping the Royal Air Force pilots with this key piece of equipment in 1940 during the Battle of Britain prevented the German Luftwaffe from winning the aerial battle over England as a precursor to invasion of Britain from occupied Europe.
Born in Brechin at 5 Union Street on the 13 April 1892 he demonstrated an early aptitude for an academic life and was destined not to enter into the family joinery business. Schooled at Damacre and Maisondieu he won a bursary to study at the university of St Andrews at that time with a base in Dundee.
Watson Watt developed his interest in radio waves while at University College, Dundee. In 1915, he started work as a meteorologist at the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough, where he was employed in using short-wave radio to detect the location of thunderstorms. This information was important to pilots and was an early method of weather forecasting. Twenty years later he was invited by the Air Ministry to investigate the possibility of determining if it was possible to develop a 'death ray' whereby radio waves could disrupt or prevent an enemy attack. Watson Watt and his team quickly established the idea wouldn't work. In his report he included a comment that radio waves could be used to detect aircraft. This comment attracted the attention of the government who had reluctantly accepted that 'the bomber will always get through'. Watson Watt was invited to demonstrate his hypothesis and successfully bounced radio waves off a Heyford bomber at Daventry, Northamptonshire, demonstrating the clear potential for radar technology to detect approaching enemy aircraft. HIs report is now regarded as 'The birth certificate of Radar'.
BRITAIN'S SECRET WEAPON
In 1936 Watson Watt set up a new research station under the Air Ministry at Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk. Britain wasn't the only country developing radio technology in these pre-war years, but Watson Watt's team were pioneers of the early systems, initially known as Radio Detection Finding before the term, RADAR (RAdio Detection And Ranging). By the Autumn of 1938, radar systems capable of detecting enemy aircraft at any time of day and in any weather conditions were in place along the south and east coasts of England. These eventually extended up the east coast of Scotland and included the only inland station at Douglas Wood near Monikie. Known as Chain Home Low (CHL) these consisted of three gigantic towers to transmit radio waves and receive the reflected signal from approaching aircraft.
The system was considered the 'secret weapon' of the Royal Air Force during the Battle of Britain in 1940. Giving advance warning of Luftwaffe formations over France, the Royal Air Force were able to quickly scramble aircraft and intercept the German pilots over the English Channel. Without WArson Watt's influential leadership, such a system may never have been operational in time. Winning the battle of Britain was a crucial and pivotal moment in 1940 as defeat would have cleared the way for a cross channel invasion. Hitler abandoned his plans and Operation Sealion was consigned to history. British shores were never threatened with invasion for the remainder of the war. The skill and bravery of the pilots flying superb aircraft were part of that success but the employment of Radar to alert and guide the pilots was critical to that success.
Watson Watt continued to play a vital role throughout the war, developing maritime and airborne radar systems and convincing politicians that continued investment in his project was essential to the defence of Britain.
Watson Watt was knighted in 1942 by a grateful country although the details of his work were, understandably, deliberately kept low key. He later lived in Canada and America before retiring to the United Kingdom in the 1960s. While in Canada he was reportedly caught speeding by a police officer using a radar-gun 'had i known what you were going to do with it' he is said to have replied 'i would never have invented it!'
ROUGH JUSTICE
Pity Sir Robert Watson Watt,
strange target of this radar plot,
And thus, with others i can mention.
His magical all-seeing eye
enabled cloud-bound planes to fly,
but now by some ironic twist,
it spots the speeding motorist
and bites, no doubt with legal wit,
the hand that once crated it!
LIFE AFTER RADAR
Watson Watt wrote his autobiography Three Steps to Victory in 1957 and campaigned against the use of nuclear weapons until his death in 1973. He believed that scientists should use their knowledge to seek ways of saving life. In 1961 he made a key note speech at a rally organised by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) at Trafalgar Square. He was also called as an expert witness by CND members at their trail at the Old Bailey in the 1960s. His wartime experience and knowledge of radar defence systems was still considered to be of great importance and the presiding judge would not allow him to answer any questions.
PERSONAL LIFE
Watson Watt was married three times without any children. His first marriage was in 1916 in London to Margaret Robertson (died 1988) the daughter of a draughtsman: they later divorced and he remarried in 1952 in Canada. His second wife was Jean Wilkinson who died in 1964.
In 1916, at the age of 74, he proposed to Dame Katherine Trefusis Forbes, who was 67 years old at the time and had also played a significant role in the Battle of Britain as the founding Air Commander of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force, which supplied the radar-room operatives. They lived together in London in the winter, and at "The Observatory" - Trefusis Forbes' summer home in Pitlochry, Perthshire, during the winter months. They remained together until her death in 1971. Watson Watt died in 1973, aged 81, in Inverness. Both are buried in the churchyard of the Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity at Pitlochry.
THE STATUE
The statue was designed and made by renowned Scottish sculptor Alan Beattie Herriot DA ARBS and unveiled in 2014 by HRH The Princess Royal, Princess Anne. The plinth is made of local quarried stone.
Standing on the plinth Sir Robert is dressed in his trademark three piece suit and rounded spectacles. Looking down St Ninians Square he faces the direction of his birthplace in Union Street and Damacre School. Held in his left hand is a model of a spitfire aircraft the iconic symbol of the Battle of Britain and in his right hand he cradles a model of a CHL tower that was used so effectively in the story of Radar.'