Britain has failed to exploit its rafts of technological developments, to its commercial detriment, said one of Britain's few technologists to have received a royal award.

British Telecommunications' chief technologist, Peter Cochrane said it was a shame so few in his field had been honored, after receiving the Order of the British Empire (OBE) award from the Queen on Thursday.

Best known for his pioneering vision about communications technology and for his work at BT's Labs in Ipswitch, Suffolk, Cochrane has made significant developments in speech recognition. He also created a stir with an "office on the arm" concept and developed a wear-anywhere heart-rate, blood-pressure, and cholesterol monitor.

He said Britain had developed the first computer, the silicon chip, optical fiber, supersonic transport, "rafts and rafts and rafts of technology." But, "the country never exploited it as it could have."

The BBC discovered in July that a U.K. Ministry of Defense scientist, Geoffrey Dummer, and his team developed the silicon chip in 1952, seven years before it was patented in the United States. But Dummer's supervisors -- looking for a way to improve radar -- were not impressed, so it went no further.

Cochrane said Britain had "missed far too many opportunities through ignorance and bad judgement and in the 21st century it has to look to e-commerce, genetic engineering, and quantum technologies for its wealth generation and prosperity."

He said the country would require IT-educated managers and politicians to achieve this.

Thursday's awards also reflected the lack of status of computer and communications technology in Britain currently as Cochrane was the only technologist invited to Buckingham Palace.

"It's a great honor and a great pleasure. But it's kind of a shame that the very industry that keeps the U.K. afloat just had one person," he said. "There are lots of deserving people in IT that could have stood there instead of me."