Edward Terrell
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Edward Terrell (1902–1979) was a British Liberal politician, a successful
barrister A barrister is a type of lawyer in common law jurisdiction (area), jurisdictions. Barristers mostly specialise in courtroom advocacy and litigation. Their tasks include arguing cases in courts and tribunals, drafting legal pleadings, jurisprud ...
and
magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...
with a flair for invention; by 1940 he had registered a number of patents relating to pens, ink bottles and peeling knives. When war came, he volunteered for the
Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve The Royal Naval Reserve (RNR) is one of the two volunteer reserve forces of the Royal Navy in the United Kingdom. Together with the Royal Marines Reserve, they form the Maritime Reserve. The present RNR was formed by merging the original ...
(RNVR) and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Special Branch of the Volunteer Reserve to run an information section.


Early life

He was the son of Thomas Terrell , who was a Liberal Member of Parliament. He graduated at
London University The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...
and was
called to the Bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...
by
Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...
in 1924. He first stood for Parliament at the 1929 General Election, when he was Liberal candidate for
Watford Watford () is a town and non-metropolitan district with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Hertfordshire, England, northwest of Central London, on the banks of the River Colne, Hertfordshire, River Colne. Initially a smal ...
. He came second, ahead of the Labour candidate. He did not contest the 1931 General Election but stood as Liberal candidate for Lambeth North at the 1935 General Election when he again finished second. From 1935 he was Recorder of Newbury. While still a civilian Terrell had outlined a scheme to the Admiralty suggesting that bases and units would need an attached lawyer to deal with the many personal legal problems that would arise with mass call-ups, and at the same time had applied to the commissioning board of the RNVR. Shortly afterwards he was approached by Charles F. Goodeve, on the staff of Sir
James Somerville Admiral of the Fleet Sir James Fownes Somerville (17 July 1882 – 19 March 1949) was a Royal Navy admiral of the fleet. He served in the First World War as fleet wireless officer for the Mediterranean Fleet where he was involved in providing ...
, to run an information section. His selection was based on his scientific background and to some extent that his father (a KC) had practised in patent law. As a result, he joined the RNVR as a lieutenant.


World War II

He was now part of what Terrell described as "private army" for Goodeve to develop naval weapons. It was nominally the staff of the "Inspector of Anti-Aircraft Weapons and Devices" but with Sommerville's departure to the Mediterranean fleet this post would be vacant, and the group (consisting of Terrell, Goodeve, the aeronautical engineer
Nevil Shute Norway Nevil Shute Norway (17 January 189912 January 1960) was an English novelist and aeronautical engineer who spent his later years in Australia. He used his full name in his engineering career and Nevil Shute as his pen name to protect his enginee ...
, the scientist F. D. Richardson, and a regular naval officer Millar) would have been disbanded but Goodeve and Millar made an arrangement with the Trade Division which was responsible for protection of the merchant fleet. As such Terrell was in charge of collecting information on the German methods of attacking the merchant ships. He developed
plastic armour Plastic armour (also known as plastic protection) was a type of vehicle armour originally developed for merchant ships by Edward Terrell of the British Admiralty in 1940. It consisted of small, evenly sized aggregate in a matrix of bitumen, simi ...
for which he received an award from the
Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors A Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors is an occasional Royal Commission of the United Kingdom used to hear patent disputes. On 6 October 1919 the Commission was convened to hear 11 claims for the invention of the tank; one of the eleven "claim ...
.Although the Commission decided that Terrell was the "sole inventor", he passed a proportion of the award to Dr Glanville, who had worked with him on it. When asked for films of German aircraft attacking merchant ships as propaganda for American production of Oerlikon guns, Terrell proposed a more substantial story using genuine mariners which received immediate approval from Sir Bruce Fraser, Controller of the Navy. The resulting film, ''The Gun'', included the American commentator
Edward R. Murrow Edward Roscoe Murrow (born Egbert Roscoe Murrow; April 25, 1908 – April 27, 1965) was an American Broadcast journalism, broadcast journalist and war correspondent. He first gained prominence during World War II with a series of live radio broa ...
. The film used some of Terrell's collected footage of attacks on real ships. Recognised for his ingenuity, energy and tact, Terrell was appointed to the staff of the
First Sea Lord First Sea Lord, officially known as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff (1SL/CNS), is the title of a statutory position in the British Armed Forces, held by an Admiral (Royal Navy), admiral or a General (United Kingdom), general of the ...
as an assistant to Vice-Admiral
Cecil Vivian Usborne Vice-Admiral Cecil Vivian Usborne, CB, CMG (17 May 1880 – 31 January 1951) was a high-ranking officer in the British Royal Navy. He served as the Director of Naval Intelligence between 1930 and 1932. His son Henry Usborne was a Member of P ...
. He was promoted with exceptional rapidity to the temporary rank of commander. Usborne's task was to develop weapons and techniques against U-boats, and he and Terrell formed a team of two. Their first success was introducing a tactical table to train and practise anti-submarine tactics at
Western Approaches Command Commander-in-Chief, Western Approaches was the commander of a major operational command of the Royal Navy during World War II. The admiral commanding, and his forces, sometimes informally known as 'Western Approaches Command,' were responsibl ...
. After investigating the captured U-boat ''
U-570 HMS ''Graph'' (pennant number P715) was a German Type VIIC U-boat captured and recommissioned by the British Royal Navy during World War II. Commissioned as ''U-570'' in Nazi Germany's ''Kriegsmarine'' in mid-1941, she was attacked and captu ...
'', they determined that if the hull was penetrated by 20 mm shells, the crew would be unable to stop the flooding. As a result, patrol craft were armed with
Hispano 20 mm cannon The HS.404 is an autocannon originally designed by and produced by the Swiss arm of the Spanish/Swiss company Hispano-Suiza in the mid-1930s. Production was later moved to the French arm of Hispano-Suiza. It was widely used as an aircraft, na ...
. At the
Directorate of Miscellaneous Weapons Development Directorate may refer to: Contemporary *Directorates of the Scottish Government * Directorate-General, a type of specialised administrative body in the European Union * Directorate-General for External Security, the French external intelligence a ...
he helped with the development of a more powerful version of the
Hedgehog A hedgehog is a spiny mammal of the subfamily Erinaceinae, in the eulipotyphlan family Erinaceidae. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera found throughout parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and in New Zealand by introduction. The ...
anti-submarine weapon called
Squid A squid (: squid) is a mollusc with an elongated soft body, large eyes, eight cephalopod limb, arms, and two tentacles in the orders Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida (though many other molluscs within the broader Neocoleoidea are also ...
. He developed techniques for reducing the conspicuous smoke given off by ships, and he worked on a bunker-busting rocket-powered bomb, the
Disney bomb The Disney bomb, also known as the Disney Swish, officially the 4500 lb Concrete Piercing/Rocket Assisted bomb was a 4,500lb bunker buster bomb developed during the World War II, Second World War by the British Royal Navy to penetrate harde ...
. Terrell enjoyed a close relationship with
Millis Jefferis Major-General Sir Millis Rowland Jefferis KBE MC (9 January 1899 – 5 September 1963) was a British military officer who founded a special unit of the British Ministry of Supply which developed unusual weapons during the Second World War. ...
of
MD1 Ministry of Defence 1 (MD1), also known as "Churchill's Toyshop", was a British weapon research and development organisation of the Second World War. Its two key figures were Major Millis Jefferis and Stuart Macrae, former editor of '' Armchair ...
, and he once defended Jefferis in court when he had been found to be driving while uninsured. In 1947 he represented Robert Stuart Macrae, also of MD1, at the
Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors A Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors is an occasional Royal Commission of the United Kingdom used to hear patent disputes. On 6 October 1919 the Commission was convened to hear 11 claims for the invention of the tank; one of the eleven "claim ...
, who was being considered for his work on the
sticky bomb The "Grenade, Hand, Anti-Tank No. 74", commonly known as the S.T. grenade or simply sticky bomb, was a British hand grenade designed and produced during the Second World War. The grenade was one of a number of anti-tank weapons developed for u ...
and other inventions.


Postwar life

Terrell returned to the legal profession after the war, taking silk and became a Recorder of the
Crown Court The Crown Court is the criminal trial court, court of first instance in England and Wales responsible for hearing all indictable offences, some Hybrid offence, either way offences and appeals of the decisions of magistrates' courts. It is ...
. In 1958, be published a book on his wartime experiences. Terrell died on 13 November 1979 at the age of 77.''Edward Terrell (Obituary)''. ''
The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...
'' newspaper, 22 November 1979 p.16 column G.
Some of his private papers related to his wartime work are held by the
Imperial War Museum The Imperial War Museum (IWM), currently branded "Imperial War Museums", is a British national museum. It is headquartered in London, with five branches in England. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, it was intended to record the civ ...
.


References

;Notes ;Citations ;Bibliography * * * * Improvements to ink reservoir and filling method. * An improved ink bottle. * {{DEFAULTSORT:Terrell, Edward Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve personnel of World War II Weapon designers 1979 deaths 1902 births Liberal Party (UK) parliamentary candidates category:english inventors Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire