Walter (or William) Ernest Stanley COXON
COXON, Walter (or William) Ernest Stanley, AMIRE (1891-1968)
Walter Coxon has the title of Father of Radio in Western Australia. Working at the cutting edge of wireless development he held the first broadcast licence in Western Australia and was the first to demonstrate radio telephony in Western Australia. He completed the first duplex telephony between Australia and Java, transmitted the first two way morse code between Australia and South Africa and conducted the first radio broadcast from a moving vehicle.
Walter was born on June 9, 1891, at Warren, New South Wales, the second eldest son of engineer and saw mill manager Joseph Coxon and his wife Matilda Rosaline Coxon (nee Henrys).
In 1901, Walter was in England, with his family where his father was working as a saw mill manager.
By 1906, Walter had returned to Western Australia and was studying at the James Street Boy’s School and in the following year was conducting radio experiments in Perth having built his first radio receiver. In 1907 he completed his equivalent of the Junior Certificate at CBC Perth.
In 1908 he commenced studies at Perth Technical College. He took up an apprenticeship in the Locomotive Department of the WA Government Railways in February 1909. He continued his studies at Perth Technical College studying Mechanical Engineering and Building Construction.
In 1914 he was licensed as Morse code operator XYK.
Walter married Gertrude Elizabeth Brown on March 2, 1914 and left for England to work with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy on experimental activity on radio. He studied at the Marconi School of Wireless in the UK. He was also awarded a Certificate of Proficiency in Radio from the North Eastern School of Wireless Telegraphy at Bridlington, Yorkshire.
Returning to Western Australia, in September 1919, with his wife and two children, he set up a retail battery business in Perth.
In October 1921, Walter made the first public demonstrations of music and speech broadcasts in Australia at the Perth Agricultural Show.
In 1921, he established a long distance wireless receiver for the Perth Observatory to receive time signals from Europe and America. He also held the first broadcast licence in WA with private radio station 6AG.
In 1924, he established the radio station 6WF and was appointed Engineer and Manager. The station opened on June 4, 1924. As part of the establishment of the radio network, he built over 1,000 radio receivers known as the Mulgaphone.
Radio 6ML was designed, built and installed by Walter for Musgroves Limited in 1930. In 1933 he carried out a similar role for Bunbury Broadcasters to establish 6BY Bunbury.
In 1934, he was Supervising Engineer to establish 6AM Northam and became Station Manager.
He set himself up as a consulting engineer, in 1935, in the AMP Chambers, with what would become the Royal Flying Doctor Service as one of his major clients.
He was divorced from his first wife and married secondly Kathleen Patricia (Pat) Walker, in Albany, in 1941.
Walter was President of the WA Division of the Wireless Institute of Australia and was an Associate Member of the Institute of Radio Engineers (USA).
Walter died on October 17, 1968 at Claremont, aged 77. He was survived by his first wife Gertie and his second wife Pat.
References:
Western Mail, 19.10.1907, p42
South Western Advertiser, 23.1.1914, p7
West Australian, 5.10.21, p8
Sunday Times, 11.10.1925, p9
West Australian, 31.5.1934, p5
Daily News, 6.4.1949, p10
