Sir Robert Alexander Watson-Watt (1892-1973) was a British scientific civil servant who pioneered the development of radar.

Robert Watson-Watt, the youngest son of a carpenter, was born on April 18, 1892, at Brechin, Angus, Scotland. He studied electrical engineering and physics at University College, Dundee, and became assistant to the professor of natural philosophy there in 1912. In 1915 he was assigned to the Meteorological Office to assist in the location of thunderstorms by their radio emissions for the information of aviators. This led to fundamental research into atmospherics (the transient radio emissions from lightning discharges) at the Radio Research Station, Slough, England, under the aegis of government departments. By the 1930s much had been achieved there through inter alia, the development of the cathode-ray oscillograph and aerial systems. Atmospherics were located by direction finding at two or more receivers and associated with the movements of cold-air fronts.

In 1935 Watson-Watt was asked...