A fascinating thread, particularly as I'm trying to research the history of ATC in the Isle of Man, which really started on 8th July 1937 with the establishment of W/T DF on MF 363Khz c/s GJE and a 10nm Control Zone. Ronaldsway also administered the Isle of Man & Manchester Communications area in combination with Barton, which was one of only 4 at the time (Heston, London-Continent & Portsmouth were the others).
The 'Flight' archives are a super source of information on early ATC and well worth a look by anyone interested.
I would dearly love to buy/see a copy of John Platt's book. Parts of it were serialised in Transmit, but stopped at 1928, just when it was starting to get really interesting!
With regard to JK at Heathrow, I still have a vivid recollection of him having two Tridents rolling at the same time on 10R, one from the full length an one from block 101 (have I got that right - it's been a long time!)
Also a plea to everyone not to throw anything historical away, if you don't want it I'll certainly take it off you hands and pay the postage!
If anyone's interested I have a small section of pictures on my website of Ronaldsway ATC in the 1960s, before radar was installed (AR1), also some more recent ones:
Air Traffic Control in the Isle of Man
If anyone has any old ATC photos they would be prepared to scan I would love to have them - I could always do a 'Historic ATC' photo gallery on my site.
Cheers to all
Jon