Obituary: Sir Donald McCallum, industrialist who presided over leading Scottish science and engineering company

SIR Donald McCallum played a leading role in Scottish industry during the second half of the 20th century. A scientist and electrical engineer by training, he spent 40 years in Edinburgh with the Ferranti (Scotland) defence systems company, half of those as general manager. As such, he presided over Scotland’s most important science and engineering company and its 8,000 employees. Those employees, who nicknamed him “Supermac”, believe his 1987 retirement was a major factor in Ferranti’s downfall and eventual bankruptcy six years later.

His reputation for trustworthiness brought Sir Donald several other senior appointments in Scotland, as well as numerous honorary degrees and fellowships. In the early 1990s, he served as the often-outspoken president of the Scottish Council for Development & Industry (SCDI), which links companies, local authorities, banks, unions and others to push Scotland’s industrial and economic development.

In that role, he campaigned on behalf of Scottish exports, for lower taxes on Scotch whisky, for recognition as universities for all Scottish degree-awarding institutions, and against Whitehall cuts in “enterprise education” in schools. He became a Freeman of the City of London in 1984 and the same year was named a Deputy Lieutenant of Edinburgh (serving for ten years).

He also served as chairman of what was then called the Scottish Committee of the UK-wide Universities Funding Council, now the Scottish Funding Council, and of a body known as STEAC – the Scottish Tertiary Education Advisory Council – created by the Scottish Office. His latter task was to consult Scottish universities on whether to look south for inspiration, or do it their own way. That job led to his knighthood in 1988 (he had been awarded the CBE in 1976 for his service to Scottish industry).

Having joined the Admiralty during the Second World War, he worked on the communications for the Royal Navy aircraft carriers HMS Indefatigable and HMS Implacable, designing a high-frequency transmitter for their homing beacons.

In early June 1944, he was given a handbook and a top-security pass and asked to sort out serious problems with the TBS (Talk Between Ships) radio equipment on allied vessels anchored in the Solent.

When he boarded the converted warship HMS Bulolo, he was taken aback to see three familiar figures disembark: Prime Minister Winston Churchill, South African Prime minister (and Field-Marshal) Jan Smuts and Minister of Labour Ernest Bevin. The young McCallum tuned the ship’s communications, then was told to get off because they were sailing.

The following morning, D-Day, he realised the Bulolo was headed for Gold Beach in Normandy as Field-Marshal Montgomery’s HQ ship.

A few days later, McCallum and his team got a message from the Admiralty congratulating them on sorting out the invasion force’s communications in the nick of time. “I just read the handbook,” he replied in typical style.

In 1947, he was hired in Edinburgh by Ferranti, a company founded by a Liverpool-born engineer of Italian origin, Sebastian de Ferranti. The firm had set up in Edinburgh during the war to make gyroscopic gun sights for allied fighter planes in the run-up to D-day.

His first project was to design a “supersonic airspeed indicator”, one of many aircraft innovations he would be involved in and whose influence would later be apparent in warplanes including the Lightning, Buccaneer, Harrier and Tornado, as well as during the flight trials of the Concorde jetliner. Sir Donald, jointly with colleagues since he preferred to work as a team, held numerous patents relating to flight control and navigation systems.

In the early 1950s, Ferranti began considering whether to go into the production of computers. McCallum was sent south to ask a professor at Cambridge University whether it saw a need for computers. “Computers? Who needs computers?” came the reply. “I mean, we have one, and Imperial [College] has one. Why would anyone else want one?” Nevertheless, Ferranti went on to produce the first commercial British computer, the Ferranti Mk1.

Sir Donald recalled working until the 11th hour on the design of a new navigation computer for a French client. While his colleagues went off to the Folies Bergères, he sat up all night in a hotel room by the Gare St Lazare in Paris, scribbling computer designs on pieces of paper.

In 1982, by then Ferranti Scotland’s general manager (since 1968), Sir Donald oversaw the development of the Seaspray radar system for Skua missiles on board British Lynx helicopters.

Although it had barely been through its trials and had not formally been accepted into service, the system proved extremely effective, as did the Ferranti Laser Target Marker to “light up” targets for laser-guided bombs.

Donald Murdo McCallum was born in Edinburgh in 1922 to Roderick “Roddy” McCallum, who was headmaster of Bathgate Academy and a well-known Brethren preacher, and his wife Lillian. He attended George Watson’s College before graduating from Edinburgh University in 1942 with a first class BsC (Hons) in electrical engineering. He married Barbara Black in 1949 and they had a child, Carolyn, in 1950.

(After Barbara died in 1971, Sir Donald married Margaret Illingworth, who passed away in 1997. He married his third wife Jill, from Essex, in 2007).

As general manager of Ferranti Scotland, Sir Donald sought to broaden its scope beyond defence contracts and more into the civilian field. One of his successes was in the oil industry, where Ferranti Offshore grew, from the mid-1970s, to become a significant sector for the firm.

He retired as general manager in 1985 but remained as chairman for a further two years. Just before he formally retired in 1987, he strongly warned against the company’s takeover of the US firm International Signal and Control (ISC). He had long warned his staff not to take on any contract that could potentially bankrupt the company. ISC looked highly profitable, but its business soon turned out to be based on illegal arms sales and its lack of cash flow led to Ferranti’s bankruptcy in 1993.

At that time, the management of Ferranti’s laser division bought out the division, renamed it Laser Ecosse and appointed Sir Donald chairman.

Having spent most of his career in Edinburgh – first in Craiglockhart, then Colinton and finally Heriot Row, Sir Donald retired to Pudsey, near Leeds, where he was highly active in the local Baptist Church.

Moving to Ulverston in Cumbria in 2007 to marry his third wife, he again was a much-loved figure in Tottlebank Baptist Church. At the age of 78, he travelled to Genoa during the G8 summit of 2001 to join the Drop the Debt campaign on behalf of the poorest countries.

Sir Donald had honorary degrees from several universities and was a fellow of numerous bodies, including the Royal Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Scottish Vocational Educational Council and Paisley College of Technology.

He will be buried on Wednesday, 26 October, at Morningside Baptist Church. His only child Carolyn died in 2007. He is survived by his third wife Jill (née Maxwell), son-in-law Dr Stephen Green, grandchildren Andrew and Barnabas, great grandchildren Noah and Esther, and several stepchildren and step-grandchildren. Sir Donald’s sister Cathy predeceased him.

PHIL DAVISON