Alwyn Crow

{{Short description|British scientist}} {{Use dmy dates|date=September 2019}} [[File:Radar and Electronic Warfare 1939-1945 H10786.jpg|thumb|right|Crow talking with [[Winston Churchill]] at a demonstration of a secret anti-aircraft device.]] '''Sir Alwyn Douglas Crow''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|CBE|FInstP}} (10 May 1894 – 5 February 1965) was a British scientist involved in research into ballistics, projectiles and missiles from 1916 to 1953. At [[Fort Halstead]] he developed the [[Unrotated Projectile]] an antiaircraft weapon for the [[Royal Navy]], used in the early period of World War II when the supply of anti-aircraft guns was limited. His obituary in ''[[The Times]]'' called him a ''Rocket Projectile Pioneer''.

He was born in London, and educated at [[Queens' College, Cambridge]]. In World War I he was commissioned in the [[East Surrey Regiment]], was injured in 1916, and Mentioned in Despatches.

In 1917, he was appointed to the staff of the [[Royal Arsenal]], Woolwich. He served as Director of Ballistics Research at Woolwich 1919–1939. In 1934 British received intelligence reports about [[Aggregat|German developments in rocket weapons]], and two years later Crow led a new research team specializing in the topic.<ref>{{cite journal | doi=10.1038/206346a0 | title=Sir Alwyn Crow, C.B.E. | year=1965 | last1=Knight | first1=R. C. | journal=Nature | volume=206 | issue=4982 | pages=346–347 | s2cid=4264245 | doi-access=free | bibcode=1965Natur.206..346K }}</ref> He later was Chief Superintendent of Projectile Development 1939-40, then Director and Controller of Projectile Development 1940-45, then Director of Guided Projectiles at the [[Ministry of Supply]] 1945–1946. He was in Washington, D.C. as Head of Technical Services to the British Joint Services Mission to Washington from 1946 to 1953. He retired in 1953, became a consultant and in 1960 settled in the United States with his second wife.

==Honours== He was appointed an Officer of the [[Order of the British Empire]] in the [[1918 Birthday Honours]] and made a Commander of the Order in the [[1937 Coronation Honours]].<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=30730 |date=7 June 1918 |page=6698 |supp=y}}</ref><ref>{{London Gazette |issue=34396 |date= 11 May 1937 |page=3089 |supp=y}}</ref> He was knighted in 1944.<ref>{{London Gazette |issue=36544 |date=2 June 1944 |page=2565 |supp=y |nolink=yes}}</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

== Sources == * Obituary ''A Rocket Projectile Pioneer'' in ''The Times'', London of 6 February 1965 p.10. * ''Who was Who 1965'' (A&C Black, London)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crow, Alwyn}} [[Category:1894 births]] [[Category:1965 deaths]] [[Category:British scientists]] [[Category:British rocket scientists]] [[Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge]] [[Category:Ballistics experts]] [[Category:Weapons scientists and engineers]] [[Category:British Army personnel of World War I]] [[Category:East Surrey Regiment officers]] [[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Category:Fellows of the Institute of Physics]] [[Category:Knights Bachelor]] [[Category:Military personnel from London]]