Clifford Cornford
British civil servant and government scientist
Sir Edward Clifford Cornford, KCB (6 February 1918 – 6 May 1999) was a British civil servant and government scientist.
Educated at Kimbolton School and Jesus College, Cambridge, he entered the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) in 1938 as a junior scientific officer. He was part of the Air Warfare Analysis Section from the outset of its existence and throughout the Second World War. He rejoined RAE in 1945 and worked on guided weaponry; he served as head of the assessments division from 1951 to 1956, and then head of the guided weapons department. He was chairman of the Defence Research Policy Staff (1961–65), before serving as Chief Scientist (Army) from 1965 to 1968, then Deputy Chief Adviser (Research and Studies) from 1968 to 1969. He was Controller, Guided Weapons and Electronics at the Ministry of Technology from 1969 to 1972, and then Controller (Policy) at the Ministry of Defence's Procurement Executive from 1972 to 1975. Cornford was then Chief Executive of the Procurement Executive from 1975 (renamed Chief of Defence Procurement in 1977). He retired in 1980. In retirement, he was a director of the Post Office from 1981 to 1987 and chairman of Raytheon Europe from 1982 to 1991.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Clifford Cornford” is british civil servant and government scientist. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Clifford, Cornford and British, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “british civil servant and government scientist” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 15, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q108600214. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1918, 1999, 1938 and 1945.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Clifford Cornford”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Clifford Cornford primary sources, Clifford Cornford archive and Clifford research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Clifford Cornford” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.