Basil Binyon
Basil Binyon (1885–1977), electrical engineer
1885 Born on 23 April at 5 Henley Road, Ipswich, Suffolk, the third of four children of Brightwen Binyon (1852–1905) and his wife, Rachel Mary Cudworth (1853–1949).
1898 Educated at Leighton Park School, Reading, to 1903
1903 Trinity College, Cambridge (Natural Sciences Tripos). Graduated 1907.
Post graduate course Electrical Engineering.
Worked at Cambridge Scientific Instrument Co
1909 worked with Guglielmo Marconi on the first transatlantic Morse code radio transmissions from Poldhu to Newfoundland. Worked for Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co
Appointed engineer to Cie. Generale Radiotelegraphique of Paris, 1911.
Appointed General Manager Anglo French Wireless Co.
1913 Married Gladys Elise Rosa Keep (1885–1960).
WWI: Commissioned into Royal Naval Air Service (R.N.A.S), 1914. Worked at Cranwell to produce some of the first airborne radio equipment for Morse telegraphy. Appointed Officer-in-Charge Wireless Experimental Department of R.N.A.S., 1916. Promoted Squadron Commander, 1917. Awarded OBE for development of air-ground telephony. Appointed Major, R.A.F.
Postwar: Set up the Radio Communication Co. Ltd which produced equipment and operators for merchant and naval ships. Developed into a worldwide long-wave communications network in the 1920s and early 1930s. Also made domestic radio sets and components under the trade mark Polar
1922 Appointed as one of the directors of the British Broadcasting Company
Director of C. F. Elwell, Limited. and Mullard Radio Valve Co.
Vice-President, Radio Society of Great Britain.
1925 Appointed chairman of the Institution of Electrical Engineers' wireless section for 1925–6.
Late 1920s Radio Communication Company was merged with Marconi in an international marine radio communication organization which supplied equipment and personnel to the merchant navies of several countries, Imperial and International Communications Ltd.
Joined the board of Marconi
1936 became a director of the Buenos Aires Water Company
WWII Served in Royal Observer Corps, for which he devised predictors based upon alarm clock mechanisms.
1977 Died on 4 April at Farnborough Hospital, Kent.
See Also
Sources of Information
- Biography, ODNB [1]
- 1925_Who's_Who_in_Wireless_Telegraphy