Sir Charles Frederick Goodeve OBE FRS[1] (21 February 1904 – 7 April 1980) was a Canadian chemist and pioneer in operations research.
During World War II, he was instrumental in developing the "hedgehog" antisubmarine warfare weapon and the degaussing[2] method for protecting ships from naval mines.
He attended Kelvin High School and the University of Manitoba, passing his BSc exams in 1925 in chemistry and physics, and receiving an MSc in electrochemistry in 1927.
[7] In 1940, Goodeve implemented the British production of the Swiss-designed Oerlikon 20 mm cannon, which was needed as anti-aircraft protection on naval and merchant ships.
), then worked on antisubmarine warfare developing the hedgehog, an array of spigot mortars which threw small, contact-fused bombs ahead of a ship.
At one point, to protect the project from internecine warfare inside the Royal Navy, Goodeve finagled a demonstration of a prototype for Prime Minister Winston Churchill.