Henry Wilson was born in Belfast and was educated at the Royal Belfast Academical Institution and Queen's University, Belfast, where he studied electrical engineering. He began an apprenticeship as a mechanical engineer with Combe Barbour in Belfast and later with Metropolitan - Vicars in Manchester. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1935, and in 1939 was commissioned. He was senior tutor of the Royal Air Force advanced armament force during the Second World War and later became education officer at the Empire Air Armament School. In 1947 he was superintendent of the Servo Division at the Ministry of Supplies Guided Projectile Establishment and later moved to the Guided Weapons Department at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, where he became Head of Armament in 1959. He was appointed Director-General of Aircraft Equipment, Research and Development at the Ministry of Aviation in 1956. He went to Washington in 1962 to lead the Defence Research and Development staff at the British Embassy as an expert on guided missiles. In 1965 he became the army's Deputy Chief Scientist and in 1967 was promoted to Chief Scientist. He was appointed Director of the Technical Centre at Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe. In 1946 he was created Member of the British Empire, in 1965 Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, and four years later Companion of the Order of the Bath. In 1961 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He was involved with Fireflash, an air-to-air guided missile; the Royal Navy's Sea Slug; Bloodhound, a surface-to-air missile and the missile Thunderbird.

Born:	1910
Died:	1992