VETERANS of scientific research in Malvern during the Second World War are returning to the town later this year.

The Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) was moved to the town in great secrecy in 1942 to carry out war-winning radar research.

Now some 60 former TRE personnel and their spouses have signed up for a reunion on September 2.

"We've even got a couple coming from the USA," said organiser Laurie Hinton, of Windsor.

"It's the 60th anniversary of the end of the war. We've been holding reunions for some time and we thought we should have one this year. We're all getting on and this will probably be the last one."

The veterans will visit QinetiQ, today's descendent of TRE, where they will be given a guided tour and buffet lunch. They will then visit Malvern College, where TRE was billeted when it was moved to the town.

Mr Hinton has clear memories of his own time in Malvern, which started in October 1943.

"We arrived at the railway station and were met by a staff car with an ATS girl driving," he said. "I thought we'd get billeted at an officers' mess somewhere, but they put us in the goods yard at Malvern Wells station."

Each day Mr Hinton and his colleagues had to walk across the common to the college, where he worked.

"I was in House Eight in a group working on centimetric wavelength radar. This was where we had the edge over the Germans," he said.

He stayed in Malvern until 1949, when he moved to Middlesex to work at EMI.

Sir Bernard unveils TRE plaque, see page 15