A clever but humble man

For a change, in this challenge I'm writing about someone in my husband's family, rather than mine.

Graeme's Dad, Leonard Samuel Dobson (known as Len) was born in 1910 in the Sydney suburb of Willoughby, the youngest of three children of Robert and Agnes Dobson.

His mother died when he was only 16 months old. His older brother stayed with their father, his older sister was looked after by their spinster aunt, and Baby Len was looked after and raised by the Crossley  family of Hornsby, who were presumably close to the Dobson family. (I have yet to find whether there was any relationship between the two families.)

He finished his schooling and started working for the Railways. 

He had a real interest in radio and undertook study at night to become a radio engineer.

In his final exam, he achieved a perfect score and was admitted to the Australian Institution of Radio Engineers on 28 February 1938.


1938 was an exciting year for radio engineers in Australia, as the World Radio Convention was held in Sydney from 4-14 April.

Len was thrilled to attend, and purchased the hardback book from the convention.


No doubt as a newly-admitted radio engineer, he devoured all the information at the convention and afterwards from the book of proceedings. The book is still in the family library.

Here's a photo of Len, taken by his good friend Ian McCloy in the same year.


Len went on to open Dobson's Radio and Electrical shop in Hornsby, which he ran initially with his brother, and later with his wife Olga.

He maintained his membership and interest in the Institution of Radio Engineers (Australia) throughout his lifetime. In 1969 it merged into Engineers Australia.

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