Peter Garland

Biography

Peter’s career in communications started as a sixteen-year-old apprentice in a short-wave wireless transmitting station in his native United Kingdom. This station was one of the original links in the Marconi Imperial Beam System. His only time away from communications, in what turned out to be a fifty-four-year career, was a spell of seven years spent at the University of Birmingham, UK designing payloads for X Ray astronomy missions that flew on sounding rockets, launched from Woomera, Australia and on one of the first space shuttle flights. He came to Canada in 1980 and worked on satellite communications in Canada for well over 35 years. During that time, he was involved in nearly every program where the state of art was moved forward. Peter was in 2014 presented with the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) award for achievement in Aerospace Communications.

Peter retired in January 2019 from the position of Vice President of Advanced Programs at MDA Corporation in Montreal. He completed an MA in Naval History at the University of Portsmouth in the UK in November 2019, his dissertation subject being “Wireless and Its Impact on Geopolitics and Naval Operations, (1919-1945).” He is interested in the history of wireless communications and also on the impact of communications technology on geopolitics and society. He currently lives on the West Island of Montreal with Daveen, his wife of 40 years, they have three daughters and four grandchildren. When not studying, Peter has been known to prance about the stage in Gilbert and Sullivan Operas, his favourite characters of course being sailors.