Lumen Pioneer - William Ernest Cooke
William Ernest Cooke was Western Australia's first Government Astronomer and a pioneer in his work on mapping stars. Australia's early developments in astronomy, meteorology and even keeping time owe much to the work of University of Adelaide 1882 Bachelor of Arts graduate William Ernest Cooke. Cooke, who also completed his Master of Arts at Adelaide in 1889, had shown his scholastic abilities early with a string of scholarships awarded by St Peter's College before enrolling at the University at just 15. While still at school his mathematical skill had attracted the attention of the Postmaster General and Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs, Sir Charles Todd, who offered a cadetship to Cooke with the Adelaide Observatory. At the end of his undergraduate degree Cooke won the South Australian Scholarship for further study at Cambridge, Oxford or London but decided, instead, to take up the role of assistant to Todd at the Adelaide Observatory. "It is doubtful if Cooke could then have found in Australia a better mentor for his subsequent career," says historian David Hutchison, in a paper on Cooke. While working with Todd, Cooke developed an interest in the measurement of the exact positions and movements of the stars and in the international program of mapping stars photographically. In 1896 WA Premier Sir John Forrest invited Cooke to take up the post of the State's first Government Astronomer, establishing the Perth Observatory. Cooke made Perth Observatory one of the best-equipped in Australia for the mapping of stars and the Observatory soon established an international reputation for its work in this field. Cooke's proposals for a more efficient star-mapping program were adopted at an international conference in 1909. In his early days at Perth Observatory, while waiting on equipment, Cooke also established a meteorological service and a time service for the State. Cooke oversaw the upgrading of weather stations and introduced a series of daily forecasts. Until the Commonwealth took over weather services in 1908 Cooke ran an efficient weather bureau and made a substantial contribution to the developing science of meteorology, in particular the behaviour of tropical cyclones. Cooke also established a time service for WA, implementing a series of time signals and controlled clocks. Before this there was no correct time across the State, causing not infrequent travel confusion. In 1912 Cooke took up the position of Government Astronomer in New South Wales and Professor of Astronomy at the University of Sydney.
There Cooke improved the observatory equipment and outputs, but his efforts to progress astronomy further with a new observatory were frustrated first by World War I and then by lack of support. He retired in 1926. Over the years, Cooke wrote numerous papers and patented many inventions including a heliochronometer, which won a gold medal at the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. Working with his son, a pioneer amateur radio operator, Cooke also recognised the ability to fix longitude more accurately by receiving time signals from Europe. Cooke returned to Adelaide in 1936 and pursued his interests in education throughout his retirement. He died in 1947 and today is regarded as an exceptional astronomer who produced significant improvement in astronomical observations and star mapping, and made a number of other important scientific contributions. ■ STORY ROBYN MILLS
The above account is largely derived from a paper `William Ernest Cooke, Astronomer 1863-1947' published in the Historical Records of Australian Science by David Hutchison, and Hutchison's article on Cooke in the Australian Dictionary of Biography - online edition.
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