Boris Townsend
George Boris Townsend MBE (13 April 1919 – 12 April 2006) was an English physicist who specialised in television engineering. He published a number of books and papers on television engineering. Early years Townsend was born in London during 1919. At school his hard work and good results won him a scholarship from an LCC Primary School to a Grammar School, where he became Captain of Athletics as well as School Captain. As a small schoolboy, he was televised by John Logie Baird although he had to stand on a box to bring his face up to the scanning disc. Baird was at the time (1925) holding his first public demonstration of television at Selfridges department store on Oxford Street in London, a short distance from where Townsend lived. Baird was demonstrating his 30-line system at 5 frames per second, and was only able to generate silhouettes. It was nonetheless fitting that the 6 year old Townsend happened to be shopping with his mother and come across the very start of television at the start of his own life. He was awarded the Sambrooke Scholarship to King’s College, University of London, where he read physics, and continued to develop his