| Authorised form of name | Oatley; Sir; Charles William (1904 - 1996) |
| Dates | 1904 - 1996 |
| Place of birth | Frome, Somerset, England |
| Date of birth | 14/02/1904 |
| Place of death | Cambridge |
| Date of death | 11/03/1996 |
| Activity | Education:
Bedford Modern School (1916-1922); St John's College, Cambridge (from 1922)
Career:
Worked for Radio Accessories, Willesden; Demonstrator, Physics Department, King's College, London (1927); taught, and examined for London University and School Certificate; Lecturer, King's College London (by 1938); joined John (later Sir John) Cockcroft (FRS 1936) in radar research (1939), taking unpaid leave from King's College, London for the duration of the war; Deputy Superintendent, Air Defence Research and Development Establishment (ADRDE) (1943); Acting Superintendent ADRDE (1944); Lecturer in Electrical Engineering, Department of Engineering, Cambridge (after World War 2); adopted Scanning Electron Microscope as a research project; a copy of the first microscope, SEM1 was later made for and exhibited in the Science Museum (1986); Professor of Electrical Engineering, Cambridge University and Head of Electrical Engineering Division of the Department (1960-1971); involved in the creation of the Cambridge Science Park; 'house' at Bedford Modern School named after him (since 1998)
Honours:
OBE 1956; KB 1974
Memberships:
MIEE; FEng (Founder member 1976); Royal Microscopical Society (Honorary Fellow); National Academy of Engineering, USA (Foreign Associate) |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/03/1969 |
| Age at election | 65 |
| RSActivity | Medals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1969; Mullard Medal 1973 |
| Relationships | Son of William Oatley, a baker and his wife Ada Mary Dorrington, a school teacher; married (1930) Enid, daughter of Mr West, Oatley's Science master at Bedford Modern School; 2 sons |
| Source | Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 1998 vol 44 pp 329-347, plate, by K C A Smith |
| Code | NA7832 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| RefNo | Title | Date |
| EC/1969/22 | Oatley, Sir Charles William: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| HWT/32/3 | Agenda, papers and minutes of meeting held 5 July 1971 | July 1971 |
| IM/GA/GRS/5365 | Oatley, Sir Charles William | nd |
| RR/66/156 | Referee's report by George William Clarkson Kaye, on a paper 'An investigation of the accuracy of König’s formula for the Rayleigh disk' by A C Merrington and Charles William Oatley | 6 April 1939 |
| RR/57/127 | Referee's report by Charles Herbert Lees, on a paper 'The measurement of contact potential difference' by Charles William Oatley | [February 1936] |