John Hooke papers, photographs and other material relating to Eilleen Sparks, Sir Lionel Hooke and Amalgamated Wireless Australasia

fonds

approximately 1899-2010

Textual Records, Graphic Materials, Photographs, Clippings, Ephemera

9637010

0.8 metres of textual material (5 boxes)
Approximately 303 photographic prints

John Hooke (1933-2018) son of Sir Lionel Hooke, was AWA chairman and chief executive after his father died in 1974, until 1988.

Sir Lionel Hooke (1895-1974), broadcasting pioneer, radio engineer and businessman, joined the British telecommunications company Marconi as a wireless operator in 1913, which merged its Australasian interests with the Telefunken company to form a new organization Amalgamated Wireless Australasia Ltd (AWA).
In 1914, Hooke was made the official wireless operator on board the SY Aurora with Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic expedition. During the expedition the ship became trapped in ice, and Hooke attempted to operate inadequate equipment for ten months until they were rescued.
Lionel Hooke served in World War I in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, and later the Royal Air Force. Returning to AWA after the war, he became deputy General Manager in Sydney in 1922, and General Manager in 1944 (after Sir Ernest Fisk retired). Lionel Hooke was knighted in 1957 and became chairman of AWA in 1962.

Eilleen Sparks (-1975) was the wife of Sir Lionel Hooke. A well-known and popular theatre actress in Sydney during the 1920s, she was born in Newcastle NSW and studied elocution lessons, before moving to Sydney and working mainly for J.C. Williamson theatre company. She had a successful career, and was principally cast for flapper and ingenue roles, however gave up performances when she married Lionel Hooke in 1930.

References:
L. W. Davies. "Hooke, Sir Lionel George Alfred (1895–1974)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Accessed 18 May 2021. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/hooke-sir-lionel-george-alfred-10536/text18707
John Hooke, Obituary, Sydney University [online] https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2018/11/01/vale-john-hooke--sydney-farewells-a-visionary-philanthropist.html
Eileen Sparks, various newspaper articles [TROVE digitised newspapers] including: “The charm of Eileen Sparks”, Daily Telegraph, 25 Oct 1924 ; “Miss Eileen Sparks to be married”, The Newcastle Sun, 16 January 1930.

This collection belonging to John Hooke includes business records and correspondence relating to his father Sir Lionel Hooke's involvement in the Amalgamated Wireless Australasia (AWA), as well as photographs, scrapbooks and memorabillia relating to his mother Eilleen Sparks and her theater performances in Sydney. It also contains material relating to the Aurora Trans-Antarctic expedition on which Lionel Hooke was the official wireless operator, and papers relating to later developments in the company, under John Hooke’s directorship.

Series 1
Eilleen Sparks scrapbooks, notebooks and photographs

Series 2
Sir Lionel Hooke papers mainly relating to his knighthood and the Aurora Trans-Antarctic expedition

Series 3
Amalgamated Wireless Australasia records and photographs

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Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder