OBITUARY

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 247, 1 August 1935, Page 5

OBITUARY

MR W. M. DAWSON.

(Special to the “ Guardian.”) WELLINGTON, July . 31

Mr Wilfred M. Dawson (assistant manager of Phillips Lamps, Ltd.), is dead. Mr Dawson was prominently connected with short-wave wireless transmission. He was 37 years bf age. ' ' ”

Mr Dawson was engineering instructor at Ashburton Technical 'High School for seven years, but was better known in Ashburton for his work with wireless. He was a very clever wireless engineer, and when the invention was in its infancy his experimental work was most successful. As early! as 1922, Mr {Dawson’s activities were marking him as one of the prominent pioneers of wireless in the Dominion, and his subsequent work indicated that he would enjoy a remarkable career in the wireless world. ■ • In 1927 Mr Dawson went .into business in Ashburton as a wireless expert, and occupied part of the premises owned by Mr AY. G. J. Osman, in Burnett Street, for about 12 mouths. He left Ashburton in 1928 to take up the position in Wellington, which lie held at the time of his death.

It is interesting to note that Mr Dawson carried out the installation, of the wireless telephone equipment in i the Southern, Cross prior to the sixth crossing of the Tasman Sea, when Mr J. S. Stannage used for the first time in the . history of ocean flights twbway telephonic communication. \\~ He was a member of the Masonic fraternity in Ashburton:' MR F. W. THOMAS, y The death occurred at his residence, Creek Road, last evening, of Mr Frederick William Thomas, at the age of 57. : , ; i4 ,,' . Mr Thomas came to Ashburton with his parents 53 years ago, and, with the exception of one break of a few years in the North Island, had resided here since then. He was employed by the New Zealand Farmers’ Co-opera-tive Association, Ltd., and it is said that he was the oldest employee of the Ashburton branch. He was a member of the Oddfellows’ Lodge, M.U., 1.Q.0.F., and of the Ashburton Club and M.S.A. The flag at the Club was flown at half-mast to-day out of respect to Mr Thomas’s memory. Mr Thomas took an active part in' tli Q annual sports meeting held at Hakatere, being a member of .the committee for a number of years. • Mr Thomas is survived by his wife and three sons, Messrs G. E. Thomas (Wanganui), R. Thomas, and C. Thomas’ (Ashburton)