Ray Whitmore (1920–2008) was a British mining and metallurgical engineer and academic, who specialised in research into radar, mining and metallurgical engineering and mining heritage in England and Australia. Early life and education Raymond Leslie Whitmore was born in Luton, England on 13 September 1920. He attended Handsworth Boys Grammar School. After completing school he joined the University of Birmingham as a laboratory assistant in the Department of Mining. He completed a BSc in physics from the University of London by external study, graduating in 1942. He was awarded the Sumpter Prize for Special Physics at the Central Technical College in 1941 which led to undertaking further study in the Department of Physics at the University of Birmingham. His field there was the emerging study of radar. War service Whitmore enlisted with the RAF in 1943 and was posted to the officers radio location training facilities at Yatesbury, where he learned radar operations. He was posted to RAF Aberdaron where he took on many of the commanding officer duties to the 80 personnel stationed there. He was later posted to RAF Malvern where he was involved with radar development and the team producing counter measures against the German radar operations, devising new techniques to assist with the D-Day landings at Normandy. Professional career After the war ended Whitmore returned to work at the university and was awarded his PhD in 1949. He was appointed senior lecturer in the Department of Mining and Fuels at Nottingham University in 1953. This appointment was financially supported by the National Coal Board. They were keen to encourage research into coal preparation and mineral dressing. Whitmore pursued research into the cleaning of coal, viscosity and sedimentation of material suspended in fluids. His research led to him being awarded a DSc by the University of Birmingham in 1959, following extensive publication of his findings. He was appointed to Reader within his department. He also lectured outside of the university in courses for the National Coal Board. Whitmore's research extended beyond mining engineering. He published a paper with another academic on “The theory of the flow of blood in narrow tubes” in the American Journal of Physiology in 1959. This publication led to research in Great Britain and the United States on the behaviour of blood in the circulation system, which had parallels to his study of the flow of particles in his mineral research. Move to