Tribute from Harriet Veitch, SMH (Edited)
Len Hibbard
Sydney-born Dr Len Hibbard died late last year aged 92. He took his secondary education to Leaving Certificate at North Sydney Boys’ High, excelling in maths and physics, and graduated BSc (1937) and BE (Mechanical and Electrical) (1939) from Sydney University.
He then lectured at the university and worked for the newly established CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory between 1939 and 1945 on radio and radar development. One of his first jobs was to modify the primitive radio equipment on the British freighter Doric Star in Sydney in the early days of WWII. The improvements were highly successful, so that, when the ship was confronted by the powerful German raider, the pocket battleship Graf Spee, in the South Atlantic a few weeks later, it was able to send a strong ‘battleship attacking’ signal before it was sunk. The signal alerted a RN squadron of two RN cruisers and the NZ light cruiser Achilles that was in the area. The ensuing battle on 13 December 1939, now known as the Battle of the River Plate, was Britain’s first naval victory of the war. The Graf Spee was damaged and took refuge in the harbour of Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, at the mouth of the River Plate. When she emerged she was scuttled by her crew. Hibbard received a congratulatory telegram for his contribution.
Over the next four years or so, Len Hibbard was engaged under Dr Jack Piddington in the radar development work which played an important part in the history of RAAF radar. After the war he went to England to take a PhD at Birmingham under Sir Mark Oliphant. When Oliphant returned to Australia in 1951, Hibbard, by then married to another Australian, Joan Single, returned also and worked with him on the ANU homopolar generator, then the largest particle accelerator of its kind in the world. This was a massive project involving some formidable engineering problems.
In 1964, when that task was successfully concluded, he moved to CSIRO’s National Standards Laboratory in Sydney where one of his tasks was to build Australia’s atomic clock. He remained with CSIRO until he retired in 1981, after which he and Joan travelled and he became interested in computers and their development.
Joan died in 1994 and four years later, his only son, Paul, also died. Len is survived by two daughters and his son’s partner, and by two grandsons.
Sydney-born Dr Len Hibbard died late last year aged 92. He took his secondary education to Leaving Certificate at North Sydney Boys’ High, excelling in maths and physics, and graduated BSc (1937) and BE (Mechanical and Electrical) (1939) from Sydney University.
He then lectured at the university and worked for the newly established CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory between 1939 and 1945 on radio and radar development. One of his first jobs was to modify the primitive radio equipment on the British freighter Doric Star in Sydney in the early days of WWII. The improvements were highly successful, so that, when the ship was confronted by the powerful German raider, the pocket battleship Graf Spee, in the South Atlantic a few weeks later, it was able to send a strong ‘battleship attacking’ signal before it was sunk. The signal alerted a RN squadron of two RN cruisers and the NZ light cruiser Achilles that was in the area. The ensuing battle on 13 December 1939, now known as the Battle of the River Plate, was Britain’s first naval victory of the war. The Graf Spee was damaged and took refuge in the harbour of Uruguayan capital, Montevideo, at the mouth of the River Plate. When she emerged she was scuttled by her crew. Hibbard received a congratulatory telegram for his contribution.
Over the next four years or so, Len Hibbard was engaged under Dr Jack Piddington in the radar development work which played an important part in the history of RAAF radar. After the war he went to England to take a PhD at Birmingham under Sir Mark Oliphant. When Oliphant returned to Australia in 1951, Hibbard, by then married to another Australian, Joan Single, returned also and worked with him on the ANU homopolar generator, then the largest particle accelerator of its kind in the world. This was a massive project involving some formidable engineering problems.
In 1964, when that task was successfully concluded, he moved to CSIRO’s National Standards Laboratory in Sydney where one of his tasks was to build Australia’s atomic clock. He remained with CSIRO until he retired in 1981, after which he and Joan travelled and he became interested in computers and their development.
Joan died in 1994 and four years later, his only son, Paul, also died. Len is survived by two daughters and his son’s partner, and by two grandsons.