BBC Engineering Division

Introduction

Engineers made it possible for the BBC to come into existence and Engineering Division was a major part of the BBC.

New: The recruitment booklets listed below provide a good introduction to the breadth of activities.  The 1989 booklet is probably the best.  Click on the links to see PDF versions.

Engineers in the BBC, 1976
Engineers in the BBC, 1977 (landscape, monochrome and smaller file.  Best for printing.)
Engineering and Technical Operations in the BBC, 1978
Engineers in the BBC 1978
BBC Engineering, c1986
BBC Technical Careers in Broadcasting, 1986
BBC Sponsorship, 1986
BBC Trainee Engineers, 1986, and last two pages
BBC Engineering, 1989

...and here is a recruitment leaflet from Appointments Department, which was not part of Engineering Division, but it includes references to engineering careers.  It seems to have been written before the era of equal opportunities! 1965 perhaps? "Opportunities for Young Men and Boys in the BBC in London".

Listen to talks about the first 40 years of BBC Engineering.

Senior engineering posts can be seen in this list of Abbreviated Titles which covered the whole of the BBC.

Click here for Recollections of BBC Engineering.

Click here to see a brochure for the 1972 Engineers-in-Charge Annual Meeting, which marked 50 years of BBC engineering (10MB PDF file).  The people who attended are pictured in the brochure, but you can also click the picture below to see a larger version.  Make sure that your browser is not set to automatic image resizing.  In Internet Explorer go to Tools/Internet Options/Advanced and under Multimedia uncheck Enable automatic image resizing.  In Firefox use Ctrl++.

Engineering Division's leaders, listed below, were members of the BBC's Board of Management. 

Captain Peter Eckersley	1923 - 1929	Chief Engineer
Sir Noel Ashbridge	1929 - 1952	Chief Engineer renamed Director of Technical Services
Sir Harold Bishop	1952 - 1963	Director of Technical Services renamed Director of Engineering in 1956
Sir Francis McLean	1963 - 1968	Director of Engineering
Sir James Redmond	1968 - 1978	Director of Engineering
Dr Bryce McCrirrick CBE	1978 - 1987	Director of Engineering
Dr Bill Dennay	1987 - 1993	Director of Engineering

A significant proportion of the BBC's staff worked for Engineering Division:

The reduction was due to the transfer of some engineering staff to the Television, Radio and External Broadcasting Directorates.  (This web site is predominantly about Engineering Division, but the scope is intended to include all engineering activities relating to the BBC.)

In 1993 Engineering Division was abolished and the remaining engineers become part of BBC Resources!

Engineering activities are summarised on the Home page and further details can be seen by clicking on the area of interest.

Engineering Personnel Department only appears under Training at present (E.P.D. Management course pictures).

The following areas are not presently within the scope of this web site, but this could change on request:-
Engineering Accounts Department.
Computer Services* (mainframe computer systems for Engineering Accounts and Central Stores etc.).

*Steve Snook contributed the following message in March 2009:
"As far as I know, Computer Services were never part of Engineering Division. Management Services Group (MSG) had two departments concerned with computing in the 1970's. These were Computer Planning Department, based at Colgate House in Oxford Street and Computer Operations based at Sulgrave House in Shepherd's Bush. They had many computer projects running across all the BBC Directorates. I was attached to Computer Planning Department as a Development Engineer in 1974/5. As part of Personnel Directorate, MSG were also involved with organisation, methods and grading."