Allen Fairhall
Sir Allen Fairhall , FRSA (born November 24, 1909 in Morpeth , Maitland City , † November 3, 2006 in Newcastle , New South Wales) was an Australian radio pioneer and politician .
School education and professional education
After leaving East Maitland Boys High School , he trained as an electrician at the Walsh Island shipyard in Newcastle . After gaining some work experience, he completed his education at Newcastle Technical College.
Broadcasting pioneer
His interest in radio and radio began while he was still at school, and so he acquired an amateur radio license in 1927. In 1929 he started the Sunday music show on the radio from his house with a gramophone and borrowed records. He later took commercials in his radio program and thus earned an additional income during the time of the global economic crisis . In 1931 he founded the commercial radio station 2 KO Newcastle, which later became one of the leading Australian provincial radio stations. When Australia joined the Allied Forces in World War II in 1941, the Department of Munitions appointed him Chief Engineer of the Radio and Communications Department for New South Wales. In this function he was responsible for the production of radio and radio equipment for the armed forces for three years as a freelance worker. In 1942 he became president of the Association of Commercial Radio Stations of Australia. In 1947 he sold his shares in the 2 KO Newcastle Broadcasting Co. Ltd. and started a dairy farm in Trevallyn.
Councilor, Member of Parliament and Minister
From 1941 to 1944 he was councilor of the Newcastle City Council and at the same time commissioner for civil disaster control.
In 1949 Allen Fairhall was elected to the Australian federal parliament for the first time and represented the interests of the Liberal Party of the Paterson constituency in New South Wales until his resignation on November 12, 1969 . In 1954 he was the first " backbencher " of an Australian delegation to the UN General Assembly . In 1956 he was founding director of the Hunter Valley Research Foundation after a flood disaster. From 1958 to 1961 he was chairman of the parliamentary committee on public works.
In 1956, Prime Minister Robert Menzies appointed him Minister of the Interior and Labor. On December 22, 1961, he became Minister of Supply and took over this post after Menzies was re-elected in 1963.
After Menzies resigned and Harold Holt was elected Prime Minister, he made him Defense Minister on January 22, 1966, and retained that post after the November 1966 election. In October 1966, Fairhall accompanied Prime Minister Holt and Foreign Minister Paul Hasluck to the summit to Manila on the future of South Vietnam and the Vietnam War .
After Holt's fatal swimming accident on December 17, 1967, Fairhall was also appointed Secretary of Defense by Interim Prime Minister John McEwen on December 20, 1967 and Liberal Prime Minister John Gray Gorton on January 10, 1968. After an illness he resigned as Minister of Defense in August 1969. At the time, his withdrawal from politics was regretted in the press.
Awards
For his work in telecommunications, Fairhall was made an honorary member of the Australian Broadcasting Institute and the Association of Radio and Electronic Engineers, and in 1966 was made an honorary doctorate in science from the University of New South Wales.
In 1970 he was made Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) and thus "Sir".
Economic activities
Soon after retiring from politics, Sir Allen Fairhall acquired Cambridge Press Publishing from New South Wales and, together with his son, expanded it into a family business after buying a printing company.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fairhall, Allen |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fairhall, Sir Allen |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian broadcasting pioneer and politician |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 24, 1909 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Morpeth (New South Wales) , Maitland City |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 3, 2006 |
| Place of death | Newcastle , New South Wales |