Hanbury, as he was always known, was born in India in 1916, the son of an army officer. Forsaking his schoolboy plans to become a classics scholar, he graduated in engineering from the University of London in 1935. He then worked on the secret development of the coastal radar — Chain Home — which was to prove vital in the 1940 Battle of Britain. By then, Hanbury was working with a group developing a shorter-wavelength radar that could be installed in aircraft. His splendid autobiography, Boffin (Adam Hilger, 1991), gives a vivid account of the trials and triumphs of this work, which by 1941 gave night fighters of the Royal Air Force the edge over the German bombers.
Hanbury's contributions also included work on the polarization of radio waves, crucial for the optimal design of aerials on equipment for air-to-surface surveillance and in the detection of ships and submarines. During his secondment (1942–47) to the US Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC, his work led directly to the NATO 'identification friend or foe' (IFF) system of today, along with the civilian system of ground-based air-traffic control now used throughout the world.
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