Mr Robert Langford (Electrical Engineering 1940)

Provided by Dr Nigel Knowles

Bob Langford who died in early June, was a lifetime member of the City and Guilds College Association (or the Old Centralians as he persisted in calling us) and a familiar face at functions for over 50 years. He was President in 1983 when he had the unusual distinction of serving for 18 months.

Born in Manchester, Bob moved first to Burton on Trent and then to St Albans as his father’s career progressed with the electrification of the signalling system on what was then the LMS railway. He attended St Albans School and from there gained a Kitchener Scholarship to read Electrical Engineering at Imperial. The course seems to have been shortened by the onset of war and he graduated with first class honours in June 1940 after only two years. (A further consequence of the war was the cancellation of all graduation ceremonies. The deficiency was finally made good some 50 years on when a special ceremony for wartime graduands was held in the Festival Hall in October 1990, presided over by the then Chancellor, the Princess Royal)

On graduation he was promptly enlisted into the Naval Reserve. After training at HMS Vernon he was sent out to Suez where he spent the bulk of the war, being involved with degaussing and demagnetising ships. He returned to the UK in Feb. 1944 and ended the war on the staff of the Superintendent Inspector at Rosyth Dockyard where he met his wife, Moira.

Bob joined Humphries and Glasgow in October 1946 and stayed with them until 1982. At that time H&G’s business forte was the design and installation of gas making plant and Bob’s early career was as the electrical engineer for the various contracts in hand. Later he got involved with schemes for the underground gasification of coal and in 1956 was appointed Associate Director with responsibility for leading H&G’s work at two experimental sites in Derbyshire. The cold war notwithstanding, he established links with the USSR which at the time was world leader in the technology. There followed a number of fruitful exchange visits culminating in the development of  a completely new gasification technique which enabled a small CEGB power station to be continuously fired by the in-situ gasification of the coal seam. Disappointingly, despite its promising performance, the NCB declined funding for further development of the technique.

By this time Bob’s commercial and management skills had been noted by his employers and he was appointed a main board director in 1960 with responsibility for H&G’s commercial operation. He travelled widely and negotiated major contracts in Australia, India, Canada, Eastern Europe, Italy, France and Germany. From 1970 to 1982 he was Managing Director-Commercial. On leaving H&G in 1982 he was appointed Director of the British Chemical Engineering Contractors Association. At various times he was a non exec director of a number a public companies and participated in several Government initiatives to promote overseas trade.

He was a Fellow of the Institution of Electrical Engineers and a Fellow of the Institution of Gas Engineers. His wartime service engendered a lifelong interest in the Navy and he was proud of his permanent commission as Lieutenant Commander in the RNR. In retirement he was a loyal supporter of the London Flotilla, The Batti Wallahs Society (the Marine Electrical Engineers Association) and the Collingwood Association.

Bob was a kindly, courteous but quite private man, whose formidable intellect was masked on first acquaintance by his self deprecating manner. He was a committed Christian and renowned for putting service to others before himself. He will be sadly missed by all who had the privilege of knowing him.