Edward Herbert Shaughnessy
Edward Herbert Shaughnessy (1871-1942), Assistant Engineer-in-Chief of the Post Office
1942 Obituary [1]
EDWARD HERBERT SHAUGHNESSY, O.B.E., died on the 29th July, 1942; and his death removes one who played a large part in the development of national and international radio communication.
Born in 1871, he entered the Post Office in 1887 as a telegraphist and in 1896 transferred to the Engineering Department as a sub-engineer. After obtaining a wide experience in most branches of telecommunications engineering, he became in 1913 head of the Wireless Section of the Engineering Department.
He was appointed Assistant Engineer-in-Chief of the Post Office in 1925 and retired from the service in 1931.
He will perhaps be best remembered for his part in the construction of Rugby Radio Station. The design was entrusted to a technical commission of which the late Lord Milner was chairman and Dr. W. H. Eccles, Mr. Shaughnessy and Mr. L. B. Turner were members. The commission recommended the construction of a valve station, although at that time no high-power station of this type was in existence or contemplated. Mr. Shaughnessy, as executive member of the commission, was responsible for the construction, a task which he accomplished with complete success. A description of the station is contained in a paper which he read before the Wireless Section in 1926.
He took a prominent part in radio activities outside the Post Office and served on the Radio Research Board, on several committees of the British Standards Institution and on the Royal Society's National Committee of the International Research Council. He was a delegate to the Inter-Allied Technical Conference on Wireless Telegraphy in Paris in 1921 and to the International Radiotelegraphic Conference at Washington in 1927.
He joined The Institution in 1919 as a Member, and served on the Council from 1924 to 1927 and from 1928 to 1931. In 1923-24 and 1924-25 he was Chairman of the Wireless Section.
He had a keen sense of fairness and justice, and possessed the happy knack of encouraging his subordinates and inspiring in them confidence in themselves. The last few years of his service were largely devoted to staff matters and negotiations with staff associations, where his conciliatory methods and skill in negotiation were largely responsible for the excellent relations which developed and still continue between the engineering associations and the Department.
1942 Obituary [2]