William Stephenson

William Stephenson grew up in Western Canada and was born on January 11, 1896. He was an avid reader and liked to experiment with Morse Code, electricity and other things. Stephenson served with the Royal Canadian Engineers in World War I and was sent to England after a gas attack, considered disabled. After this the became a combat pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. He was shot down and captured in Germany and escaped three months later. After the war, he attended Oxford, specializing in radio communications and returned to Canada to teach math and science at the University of Manitoba. He was interested in public broadcasting and helped form the British Broadcasting Company. He had an interest in several radio companies and did some work on the concept of television. From his scientific work, he began to see the value of intelligence for early warning systems.

On 1924, he...