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.

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

1913 Married Gladys Elise Rosa Keep (1885–1960).

WWI Served in Royal Naval Air Service. Worked at Cranwell to produce some of the first airborne radio equipment for Morse telegraphy. Awarded OBE for development of air-ground telephony

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 nade domestic radio sets and components under the trade mark Polar

1922 Appointed as one of the directors of the British Broadcasting Company

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

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Sources of Information

• Biography, ODNB [1]