Edmund Ramsay Wigan was a distinguished Acoustical and Mechanical Engineer (https://works.bepress.com/edmund-wigan/) who patented literally several dozen devices and ideas, was responsible for the field radios used by the Allied forces in Europe in World War 2, and when invited as the special merit Senior Principal at the BBC Research lab in Kingston, Surrey, invented the quality meters, tuned all the BBC broadcasting aerials for quality, and did applied research creating a reliable measure for subjective levels of sound distortion. As a minor practical measure invented the one cycle offset used ever since to avoid feedback in large multi-miked rooms. He was also a man who engaged with everyone, an artist and a rounded picture of this remarkable and unassuming man of impeccable integrity of person and profession is given in this book . Macmillan agreed to the reproduction of two of his Nature publications for this purpose. The personal touch is given in one of his daughters introduction

"In January 2002 it occurred to me that it was Dad’s centenary year. When he died I was lucky enough to inherit most of his paintings and his poetry. I have looked after these over the years but they are beginning to deteriorate. Also, I am aware of how few people have actually seen them. At the same time Marcus had been going through some of Dad’s papers and patent specifications, and in February 2002 we began the great adventure of rediscovering Dad, more than thirty years after his death on 16th October 1970. Almost at once, Dad’s positive influence came to bear upon the project: Marcus and I sat in my kitchen on a cold, February afternoon reading his life story aloud. It was as if he was there with us. On Marcus’s next visit from Australia we went and visited Dad’s grave in Eastergate, West Sussex. In the sunny days of summer, Julie and I spent a wonderful afternoon photographing Dad’s paintings to get the digital images we needed. Here Julie’s wonderful new digital camera came into its own and her abilities with the Photoshop software. Gradually the items were assembled: Marcus edited the “apologia”, which was the story of Dad’s early life that he wrote and rewrote over many years up until 1967, and added segments from Dad’s technical notebooks where they were appropriate. He also sorted out the poems and the many Patents, and developed and wrote abstracts for the bibiliography of his works, which is extensive but known to be incomplete. We made much use of our computers and the internet, and we were all aware of how much Dad would have loved to see his own children making such good use of all this modern technology. Then we asked around for other people with memories of Dad. Sadly, these were few. Mary Sherman, Dad’s niece, wrote some memories, while others pointed the way to new ideas. The centenary year passed without the book yet in existence. Therefore, with renewed enthusiasm, I decided to make a fresh start. I set out with my husband John early in 2003 to find Undercombe. This proved to be singularly difficult as the name of the house had been changed. We found the people of Wendover very helpful in our quest. The local bookshop and library gave us some clues. After a close study of a map dated 1910, plus a great deal of deductive reasoning, we found out at last where the house was. Later, during Marcus’s next visit, we went to Wendover. We were greeted with such friendliness that we ended up inside Lime Tree House talking to the new owners, and were able to go into Dad’s bedroom where he slept as a boy and see the view that he once saw out of the same window. Then we went to where we believed Undercombe to be and found the place (now called Bacombe House) was for sale. We were allowed to enter and were shown round and over a cup of tea we were handed a written history of the house! Again Dad’s positive, creative influence seemed to be there, guiding us. It remained for me to master some new publishing software and find the time to assemble the pages. Now, after more than a year and a half, it is complete. We would like to thank everyone who has helped us with this project. We hope that this small effort will serve to celebrate the life of a remarkable and multi-talented man of transparent integrity, whom we loved very much. Althea Hayton (r.i.p 2014) November 2003"