Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology
Preface
Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1929–1946 by Allan Cornish
Foreword
Chapter 1: My Early Days in the Bureau
Chapter 2: Some New Vistas
Chapter 3: The RAAF Measures Upper Air Temperatures
Chapter 4: The Bureau Begins to Grow
Chapter 5: My Voyage in Discovery II
Chapter 6: The Birth of the Instrument Section
Chapter 7: Darwin Days
Chapter 8: I Leave the Bureau
History of Major Meteorological Installation in Australia from 1945 to 1981 by Reg Stout
Four Years in the RAAF Meteorological Service by Keith Swan
The Bureau of Meteorology in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s by Col Glendinning
Index
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Chapter 6: The Birth of the Instrument Section (continued)
The appointment of Warren to the Assistant Director's job replacing Barkley raised a lot of speculation amongst the Meteorologists about what would happen when Watt retired. In the event, Warren became Acting Director I think in 1940 and remained Director of the RAAF Meteorological Service with the rank of Group Captain when it was created in April 1941. The appointment of a non-meteorologist as head of the Service was a quite remarkable departure from previous practice, but, in retrospect, I believe that no senior Meteorologist could have taken over running the Bureau from a management point of view in that situation. Warren knew how to handle the Public Service Board.Many years later I remember talking to Len Dwyer about the time he became Director. I had a lot of time for Len. He had a lot going for him in many ways. He was looking then for someone to fill a vacancy on his administrative staff. He said 'what I'm after is a bloke who can think the boys' way three weeks ahead of the boys. I want a bloke in the place who can handle the Board, that's what I need most of all. That's why Warren was given the job.'
In those circumstances Warren was the man for the time. Timcke was too indecisive. Barkley was dead. There was no-one else.
People in Bright Sparcs - Cornish, Allan William; Dwyer, Leonard Joseph; Timcke, Edward Waldemar; Warren, Herbert Norman; Watt, William Shand
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
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