Research and Special Investigations

The list of references appended to the paper includes Taffy Bowen's 1945 proposal for the formation of a meteorological section within CSIR, the 1956 report of Lord Brazabon's committee to review the organisation of the UK Meteorological Office, Bill Priestley's 1947 proposal for a program for the CSIR's Meteorological Section, and Simpson's 1939 report on research and training in the Bureau.

My paper referred to the wide variety of activities which could be described as research and the range of opinions on how the value of research could be assessed. I advanced the view that a national meteorological service should pursue a range of activities from pure research to the application of existing knowledge to specific problems. Although 37 years have elapsed since the presentation of that paper I feel that much of it is still relevant. I believe that Len Dwyer thought well of the paper but there were a host of more pressing management problems occupying his mind and it was not until after his death that I was able to take steps to seek more resources for research in the Bureau.

At the time of my appointment as Supervising Meteorologist (Research) in August 1948 there was no member of the Bureau's staff engaged full-time in meteorological research. For me there was always some area of the Bureau's activity requiring routine administrative duties such as reviewing the program of the Central Analysis Section, examination of proposals for reorganisation, attention to WMO matters, attendance at seminars, committees, working groups and conferences, and provision of advice on a wide range of scientific questions.

Bureau of Meteorology