SOE News

RAF engineer wins the Churchill Medal

20th Jan 2012

Flight Lieutenant David Ramsey
[Picture: Crown Copyright/MOD]

Flight Lieutenant David Ramsey has been announced as the winner of the Professional Engineering Institutions' (PEI) Churchill Medal Award 2010/11.

Ramsey was chosen above many other quality nominations as the recipient of the award after demonstrating outstanding engineering professionalism in the disciplines of requirement analysis, system engineering and project management. His work has provided an innovative information management solution in support of counter-improvised explosive device operations in Afghanistan. His solution to the problems of transferring information between key personnel in theatre and the UK led directly to a significant increase in the number of IED-makers being identified and thus detained, thereby reducing the threat to coalition forces and the Afghan population.

First presented in 1952 by Sir Winston Churchill, the award has been realigned to reflect achievement in engineering and technical advancement, in support of military operations for those serving within the Armed Forces.

Although the medal and framed certificate were not awarded for a number of years, the Churchill family were keen that it be reinstated as an annual award. Sir Winston Churchill originally approved the title of the medal at the end of 1946, and it was first awarded in 1952.

Last year the Society of Operations Engineers (SOE), working in partnership with the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology, the Royal Aeronautical Society, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institution of Royal Engineers, was part of an initiative to re-launch this prestigious award.

SOE Head of Membership and Professional Standards John Williams said: “On behalf of the SOE, and all involved PEIs, I thank Flight Lieutenant Ramsey for his significant contribution to the engineering profession, which has resulted in reducing danger to his colleagues and the public in Afghanistan. We congratulate him on receiving this prestigious award, and I believe that his position amongst the list of previous winners, such as Sir Frank Whittle, Sir Geoffrey de Havilland and Professor Alan Wells, is well deserved.”