Charles James “Jim” Aldridge, May 1944 – May 2020
Published: Fri 3 Jul 2020
Born in Enfield in 1944, Jim moved to Bromley for his school years before moving to Ramsgate aged 16. Whilst still at school in Ramsgate, Jim applied to become an airline pilot. Having passed the medical and a week of aptitude tests, he was offered a coveted place to start in September 1963. However his hopes were dashed when Kent Education Office said that he could not have a grant and there was no other way of him affording the fees.
Luckily, he was able instead to take up an apprenticeship at Marconi Instruments, St Albans, with study at Mid-Essex Technical College, later transferring to Hatfield Technical College. Having admired his grandfather’s skills as a Master Toolmaker and spent many hours in his workshop as a child, Jim was well placed to make the most of the excellent training offered at Marconi, witnessing the transition of most of their products from vacuum valves to solid state electronics and working on commercial microwave ovens and TV. He passed his Part III IEE Exams in 1968 and went to work for Hirst Electric in Sussex and Kent, converting welding machines from valve to solid state and developing calibrated magnetisers. Having met his wife, Jackie, in St Albans in the middle of his apprenticeship, they married in 1969.
In 1971, Jim moved to the Home Office Police Scientific Development Branch in Crewe, working in the Police Technical Equipment department. Tackling everything from terrorists to bicycle thieves, Jim’s experience in TV and optical equipment was appreciated and extended by the teams he worked with. Jim applied to be “loaned” to the Cabinet Office in 1974 so that he could move his young family back to St Albans for much needed support with childcare from Jackie’s parents.
Jim’s role in the Cabinet Office was to help organise, set up and test the secure communications systems used by the Prime Minister (then Harold Wilson) including telephone, radio, facsimile, television and telex. Whenever and wherever the PM was located, he needed to be in touch with his office for official business and that included the means to order the firing of nuclear weapons. He worked with GCHQ engineers checking a new system to convert voice to digital stream and encrypt it for transatlantic communications and oversaw the refurbishment programme of the old Pickwick encrypters. As a secondee, he took on many interesting jobs on the “other side” of doors that most people never knew existed.
Jim moved on in 1976 to PSDB Sandridge, near St Albans, where he was to spend the rest of his career. He swapped the crush of the daily London commute for a 2 mile walk up country lanes and was home in time for dinner most days. At Sandridge he developed the use of cameras for covert surveillance and went on to create his infamous rotating manikin test chart “Rotakin”, which became part of the British Standard for testing CCTV. He was involved in sensitive subjects such as reviewing footage of major stadium disasters in the 1980s, laboratory analysis of video tape evidence to check for tampering, remote courtroom interviewing of vulnerable children, and the development of automatic number plate recognition. In the 1990s he also went to the USA and South Africa to advise their police forces.
Jim’s passion for improving the quality of surveillance images has enabled it to become the backbone of national security that we now take for granted. Due to retire from PSDB in 2004, people started to ring him and ask him for a few days a month consultancy. The knowledge he had was not only comprehensive but it came with independence that customers could not rely on from industry. His main customers were BAA, covering most main airports in England and Scotland, London Underground, British Rail and the Security Services. All were developing massive CCTV interests and needed help with performance standards, testing protocols and codes of practice. They also had large training and education requirements for every level from top management to front line workers. Jim was one of very few truly independent consultants who had the knowledge and the contacts to deliver what was required. From the Channel Tunnel to Shetland, city centres to HM Prisons, Jim advised on the practicalities of just about every public CCTV system. He was an engaging educator and speaker and well known for pointing out expensive and ineffective systems (and the companies that sold them!).
Jim’s two longest lasting hobbies were coaching gymnastics – he ran the SAADI Gymnastics Club in St Albans for 45 years with his wife Jackie and ran coaching courses across Hertfordshire – and gardening. In retirement, after he closed his consultancy, Jim’s engineering skills were still in demand as a member of Remap, with which many IET members will be familiar. Remap is a national organisation with local panels of volunteer engineers who create bespoke solutions for people with disabilities.
He is survived by his wife, Jackie, two daughters and four grandsons, two of whom have inherited Jim’s interest in electronics.