Leonard George Chapman

Squadron Leader Leonard George Chapman (28 March 1910 – 25 July 1975) was an inventor, radio engineer and Royal Air Force officer.

While serving in the Royal Air Force he invented the 'Chapman Method' in 1937–1938. This method accurately determines the location of an object from the time difference of arrival of a signal (possibly radio echo) emitted from that object to three or more receivers. A method commonly used in civil and military surveillance applications, and also known as Multilateration. Thus it has been suggested that Chapman be nominated as the father of Multilateration.

Chapman was in charge of installing 5 radar stations

He had a long and distinguished career holding a variety of commands, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader and receiving a permanent commission.

Early life Leonard Chapman was born on 28 March 1910 to father George Chapman and mother Ellen Cole. George Chapman was serving at the time in the Queen's Northamptonshire Regiment.

By 1929 the direction of Leonard Chapman's life's work had begun to form when he attended Flowerdown, the Royal Air Force Electrical and Wireless school for training aircraft apprentices.

Subsequently, Chapman attended the Chatham Technical School for 2 years. He was then accepted into the Engineering Department of Woolwich Polytechnic for 3 years, after which he attended the Royal Air Force Electrical and Radio School for 3 years. Finally in 1937 he attended the Ground Radar course under Watson-Watt. This proposal was implemented and evaluated by Sir Edward Fennessey, one of the Bawdsey staff.

From 1941–1944 Chapman was a staff member at the Royal Air Force Scottish Headquarters serving as senior installation officer, senior training officer, and operations officer.

Post Second World War work

Chapman worked for the Royal Air Force until 1964. From 1944–1953 he was consecutively the commanding officer of a radar convoy unit, the Servicing Wing R.E.U Henlow, RAF Grangemouth, and Skendleby radar station. From 1958–1959 he worked at Scottish Sector Headquarters on radar operations and electronic countermeasures. From 1959–1960 he was the commanding officer of the North German "G" Chain. From 1961–1964 he worked at Fighter Command headquarters on ground radar servicing.

Work in the private sector

Chapman's work in the private sector included managing airfield radar maintenance at Airwork Services and managing Satellite Tracking equipment at Winkfield, near Windsor.

Personal life

When Leonard Chapman was a school boy his mother died whilst giving birth to his sister Dora. His father, George Chapman, remarried within a year to an Army Nurse, and within 3 years they had a daughter Winifred. George Chapman was a proud Army man successfully becoming a commissioned officer by working his way up from Private to Lieutenant. He did not believe that the relatively recently formed Royal Air Force was a 'real force' that could offer Leonard the same opportunities as the Army. Thus Leonard showed strong independence by attending Flowerdown boys and joining the Royal Air Force.

Whilst supervising construction of a radar station in Netherbutton, Orkney Islands, Leonard meet his wife to be Jemmima Leamonth, who worked in a local radio shop. They were married on 23 June 1940 at Kirkwall, Orkney Islands. Leonard would not even let Jemmima know the secret of radar.

Leonard and Jemmima remained married until Leonard's death in 1975. During their marriage they had a daughter they named Patricia. Patricia assisted Leonard with his work on Satellite Tracking at Winkfield, near Windsor.

Leonard was the second eldest child of George and Ellen. He had 3 siblings, namely a brother Victor who died young, and two sisters Dora, and Winifred. At Winifred's funeral it was said she worked at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing, but sadly no information on her contribution has been officially released.