John Humphrey Beattie FRIN FNI died on 26 June 2014, at the age of 86.

John was educated at Shrewsbury School and then joined the Navy, intending to make it his career but deteriorating eyesight prevented this and he was eventually invalided out after 12 years' service, during which he won a number of prizes including the Beaufort and Wharton Testimonial for Navigation, one of the oldest naval prizes. He spent much of his later naval dme as a Torpedo Anti-submarine tutor at HMS Osprey and Liaison Officer at Portland. He did not restrict himself to watery matters - he soloed in a Tiger Moth and later had opportunities to try his hand at navigating Fireflies and a Sea Otter. His interest in air navigation started then and became an enduring one. After he left the navy he maintained his close naval links and became the unofficial Naval Archivist for the Special and Direct Entry System (1913-1955). This led to an invitation by the Admiral of the Fleet The Lord Lewin to prepare a Book of Remembrance for the 440 Special Entry Cadets who died in the two World Wars. It took him three years to compile and it was dedicated at RNC Dartmouth in 1992. He once said: 'I thought it was a great privilege to have served in die Senior Service, and this gave me a wonderful start in life'. It was clear that he had a great affection for the Service which he never lost.

In 1957 he joined Decca Radar Ltd and made a second career there where he often said he considered himself privileged to be working with engineers to create electronic products that would create safety at sea. When he retired from Racal Marine (the successors to Decca) in 1993 from his post as Corporate Marketing Manager, Marine Policy, he went on to work as a consultant on many different products such as radar, electronic charts, ship's black boxes, satellite communications and navigation and night vision equipment, finally ceasing work in 2000 aged 72.

During his time at Decca he undertook work on ship routeing entirely on his own initiative, starting with a seminal paper presented at Kiel to the Ausschuss fiir Funkortung in 1960 where he put forward a series of concepts and ideas which deeply influenced the principles of ship routing which have now been adopted internationally. He was the first to undertake a systematic collation and analysis of worldwide marine collision statistics and interpret them in relation to traffic density and traffic flow. This required some mathematical skill, and indeed one of his papers was read at the Institute of Mathematics.

During this time, John collaborated closely with the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and the International Electronics Council (lEC), where he helped to develop more than 25 navigational safety operational standards and he also acted as the Comite Internationale Radio Maritime (CIRM) Radar Rapporteur. In 1999 he was the first person to be awarded Honorary Life Membership of the CIRM, the organisation through which he influenced the standards adopted by the IMO. He produced 45 professional papers and many more unpublished papers on radio navigation, charting and marine electronics. Not satisfied with all his other activities he was also a member and Treasurer of the International Association of Lighthouse Authorities (lALA) for a number of years.

He married Carol in 1961, who survives him, as do his two daughters, Fiona and Nicola. They remember him for his love and devotion, his enjoyment of sport, travel and ornithology and his dry sense of humour. John always wanted mariners to have the best and he wanted them to fully understand the equipment they were using. That was his mission in life. He was highly capable and many of his innovations still enhance maritime safety today. He was a friend to many people, much respected, and he will be sadly missed.

This page contains tributes to those colleagues and friends of CIRM who have passed away.

Tributes

Nanda Kumar Krishnan

RADM Marshall Edward Gilbert

Andy Fuller

Chris Wortham

Holger Mahnke

Peter Griffiths

Paul Devlin

Vladimir Maksimov

Mike Fox

Dave Walsh

Dennis London

John Beattie