M. G. Scroggie

Marcus Graham Scroggie, B.Sc., F.I.E.E., (1901–1989) was a British technical author active in the fields of radio and electronics.

Early life and education

He was born in Leytonstone, Essex in 1901, the only child of the Baptist minister, writer and theologian Dr. W. Graham Scroggie. He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1922. He gained practical experience, in the still emerging technologies of radio and electronics, at Bruce Peebles Ltd and Creed Telegraph, before moving to Burndept Wireless Co - one of the original constituents of the pre-Reith British Broadcasting Company.

Military service

He served in World War II in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in command of Pevensey Bay radar station in East Sussex and from there became a lecturer at the RAF Radio School at Yatesbury, Wiltshire, as well as being tasked by the Air Ministry to take charge of all RAF secret radar and radio publications.

Writings

After the War, he became a technical consultant and is known for more than 800 articles he contributed to 'Wireless World', often under the pseudonym 'Cathode Ray', as well as several books. He died in 1989.

Though not as prolific a book writer as FJ Camm, Scroggie is chiefly remembered for his seminal work, Foundations Of Wireless [in later editions, … and Electronics]. Although this was originally written by A.L.M. Sowerby (and published in 1936 by Iliffe & Sons, London) its third edition of November 1941 was, 'Revised and enlarged by M.G. Scroggie B.Sc, M.I.E.E' and all subsequent editions bore Scroggie's name as author. An 11th revised edition was published by Newnes in 1997 as Scroggie's Foundations of Wireless & Electronics, revised by SW and RS Amos, ISBN 0-750-63430-8.

Nine editions of his Radio Laboratory Handbook, first published in 1939, later Radio and Electronic Laboratory Handbook, (last and 9th, 1980 edition coauthored by George Gordon Johnstone, ISBN 0-408-00373-1) were published.