The GEC Research Laboratories at Wembley, later called the GEC Hirst Research Centre, were formally opened on the 27th February 1923 by Sir J.J. Thomson and Lord Robert Cecil. On the 29th February 1944, Dr. Clifford Paterson, Director of the Laboratories, gave a talk to staff and to some GEC Directors to mark the 21st anniversary of this official opening. In what was probably the first public account of their origins, he said that the Laboratories had actually come into being at the beginning of 1919 and that the concept was at least as early as 1916. His talk was subsequently printed for private circulation as 'A Confidential history of the Research Laboratories', and much of this description of the origins of the Laboratories is taken from his account.

Inspec keywords: laboratories; history

Other keywords: The GEC Research Laboratories; GEC Hirst Research Centre; AD 1919-84

Subjects: Biographical, historical, and personal notes