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A. G. D. WEST
BY THE DEATH of Captain A. G. D. West at the age of 52 while mountaineering in Switzerland, television has lost one of its outstanding pioneers.
Captain West, who joined J. Arthur Rank in 1947, was head of Rank's television organization. He had developed a large-screen television system of high quality, and it was he who was responsible for the first practical demonstration of large-screen television given in December, 1948, at a Bromley, Kent, theater.
Captain West attended Cambridge where he received his Master's degree with first-class honors. Later he attended London University, then proceeded on a research studentship at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge.
During World War I he was wireless experimental officer with RFC and RAF. From 1923-1929 he was assistant chief engineer and head of research with the British Broadcasting Corporation. For the next three years he was head of design and development with the Gramophone Company, and in 1932 he went to the Baling Studios as their chief sound engineer. From 1933 to 1947 he was technical director for Baird Television at which time his company was merged with J. Arthur Rank.
He was deeply interested in the scientific aspects of television and was one of the forces behind the setting up of the Television Committee and vice-president of the International Television Committee.
As president of the British Kineniatograph Society from 19381946, and later Fellow, and president of the Royal Photographic Society in 1938, he was well known to American theater television experts.
At the time of his death last August, he was vacationing with his elder son, before going to the International Television Exhibition and Convention at Como and Milan, where he was to present the first demonstration of large-screen television on the Continent, on behalf of Cinema-Television.
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