Swords into ploughshares: Cecil Gordon’s role in the post-war transition of operational research to civilian uses

Operational research, having developed in Britain as a contribution by scientists and the scientific approach to Second World War military planning, became a significant element in the process of post-war reconstruction. Cecil Gordon, a leading wartime operational researcher, headed the principal civilian government Operational Research OR unit at the Board of Trade. He was also a key member of the Working Party of the Committee on Industrial Productivity, which attempted to promote the wider adoption of operational research. These enterprises were consistent with his socialist commitment, in many ways typical of a generation of Left scientists and of many pioneers of operational research. The article describes and analyses the defeat of these initiatives, and the virtual ejection of Operational Research OR from government by 1950. In the immediate post-war period, operational research attempted to develop operational methods for a rational alternative to economic coordination via market forces. Some lessons are drawn from the deflection of this radical thrust of OR, in the light of both contemporary factors and subsequent experience.