Roland Ernest Hammond: An Engineer in High Demand

Pat Bayly was anxious to add Roland Ernest Hammond, a Montreal-based engineer employed by Northern Electric Company, to the BSC's Communications Section. Bayly knew and trusted Hammond, which was essential given the "very grave security aspects" involved in his work on signals intelligence machinery.

Hammond's qualifications, however, were in high demand, and Northern Electric and the Canadian Department of Munitions and Supply desperately needed him for airplane radio design and construction. In 1942, Bayly sought to put Hammond's talents to use in "the development of urgently needed machines for automatic coding plus a device in use at the present moment regarding radio transmission which I cannot even discuss in this message." He could not say if this was "more vital in the United Nations interest" than work on airplane radios.

Bayly and his friends in Canada's Department of External Affairs were not able to secure Hammond's release in 1942. Hammond finally resigned from Northern Electric in 1943, which made it possible for him to join the BSC.