TED Cooke-Yarborough, who has died at the age of 94, was the lead designer of one of the world’s early computers and a pioneer in radar and electronics.

Born on Christmas Day, 1918, in Yorkshire, Mr Cooke-Yarborough quickly showed his engineering capabilities, building his first radio by the age of 11.

After reading physics at Christ Church, Oxford, he was called up for war service in 1939 and in 1940 was invited to work on the secret development of radar. He led the research, development and production of a fully automatic airborne radar system to warn aircrews of enemy fighters approaching from the rear.

After the war he went with a combined intelligence mission to interrogate German scientists on their work on guided weapons and radar.

In 1946, Mr Cooke-Yarborough, pictured, joined the UK Atomic Energy Authority. After moving to Harwell in 1948 he supervised the design, construction and commissioning of the Harwell Dekatron computer.

In the 1950s he went on to develop one of the first digital computers to use transistors throughout.

Mr Cooke-Yarborough, who lived in Longworth, near Abingdon, married Anthea Dixon in 1952, and in 1957 was appointed head of Harwell’s Electronics Division.

In 1980, he was elected Fellow of the Fellowship of Engineering and became chief research scientist at Harwell until his retirement in 1982.

Following his retirement he worked as a consultant and presented papers around the world.

Mr Cooke-Yarborough’s wife of 55 years died in 2007.

He is survived by his son Anthony and daughter Janet, and five grandchildren.

The funeral took place at St Mary’s Church, Longworth, on January 22.