Hello Dick, if you're still around PPRuNe. We have worked together in the past! Yes, we were part of that breed of "new entry" controllers - when I arrived at Eastern I only had 5 years under my belt, including 2 1/2 at Tengah [possibly the busiest RAF airfield at the time].
I arrived too late at Watton/Eastern Radar [early 1970] but the sad story was still current. As has been said, in various ways, the T82 radar didn't have the World's finest weather suppression, and the Midland Radar overhead was half-jokingly but seriously, an enormous obstacle to the provision of radar services. On a bad day, anyone trying to provide an Air Traffic Service from a T82 radar was up against the wall.
Add to that the complexity of ATC procedures in those days, where there were dozens of airfields with interlaced departure and recovery 'lanes' which vaguely offered some reassurance. It was a miracle, IMO, that such tragedies didn't happen more often.
Sadly, nothing is perfect.