Roy Dommett, British engineer & rocket scientist, Died at 82

  Dead Famous

Roy Leonard Dommett was born on June 25, 1933, and died on November 2, 2015.

He was a British engineer and rocket scientist, and the United Kingdom’s Chief Missile Scientist, who for many years led the United Kingdom’s research and development of both ballistic missiles and space rockets for the delivery of satellites into orbit. In retirement he lived in Hampshire.

Roy, a descendant of an old East Devon Family, was born on 25 June 1933, at Southampton.

He was educated at the Itchen Grammar School and Bristol University, gaining a first in Aeronautical Engineering in 1954.

Employed by the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough from 1953 to 2000, while it became DRA and DERA, he retired before it divided into Qinetiq and Dstl.

Roy married in 1956 to Marguerite Patricia Dawson, whom he had met at school, and they had seven sons and one daughter.

Roy first experience with rocket technology was witnessing the arrival of a V-2 at Southampton.

His family had links with the aviation industry (his uncle worked at the Supermarine works in Southampton on the Spitfire).

Roy passed away at age 82 in November 2015.