Biography

“What does it do?” the reporter asked. “Well,” the soldier replied, “you can walk with it while you talk with it.” This straight forward response from a solider to a reporter’s question in wartime 1941 led to the creation of a term known the world over – the walkie-talkie. Few know that it was a Canadian, Donald Lewes Hings, who pioneered the invention and who so greatly aided the allies in WWII as a result. It’s an interesting story, right out of the spy novels and the B.C. hinterlands.

It all starts with Donald Hings. He was born in Leicester, England, 1907 and as a young boy immigrated first to Lethbridge, Alberta, then with his mother to Vancouver B.C. He entered middle school in North Vancouver, though he was largely self-schooled thereafter and did a remarkably fine job it appears. He soon began an interest in the emerging telecommunications world, especially the wireless radio, and took a 2-year wireless communications course.

Following a stint in the Nelson, B.C. area as a forestry plant foreman (1927-30), his interest and growing expertise in communications led him to work for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (currently Cominco). The company’s geologists would enter the remote B.C. hinterlands searching for mineral deposits, sometimes for weeks and months at a time. When they found a deposit, it could be another week or more before the head office would hear about it. Worse, if an emergency happened either on the ground or with the bush pilot in charge, no one would know the location, and recovery efforts were extremely problematic. This is when the young Don Hings was solicited by Consolidated Mining to enhance two-way voice radio communications.

Through much trial and error, by 1937 Hings would eventually develop a rudimentary, but effective, portable emergency voice radio. The device, which he called ’the packset,” proved worthy for the wilderness trips since it was made watertight, could float, featured a folding antenna, was painted a bright yellow for quick recovery, and had a 130-mile range. Consolidated Mining was happy and relieved not to lose its employees and mineral findings.
Throughout his career Hings was constantly inventing things and had arranged with Consolidated Mining that he could patent his own inventions while with the company. In 1939 he went to Spokane, Washington to register his new “packset.” After spending an exhausting day explaining the details of ’wireless telephony electronics’ to a patent legal firm, he returned to his hotel room in the evening and read the headlines: Germany had invaded Poland. Shortly after began World War II and a major change and opportunity for the young inventor arose.

Hings was soon asked to go to Ottawa and show his new two-way radio device to the Canadian military. Needless to say the high command saw its benefits for the battlefield and arranged for Hings to be seconded to National Research Council for the duration of the war. Further advancements to his “packset” came quickly with such innovations as a speech scrambler, a noise filter, a voice magnifier and improved earphones. Not only could the device be used by planes covering troops, but by any military regiment needing communications between soldiers — it was, in effect, a major life saver for the battlegrounds. In showing a model C-18 to Toronto newspapermen, a soldier demonstrating the equipment was said to be asked what purpose the equipment had. He replied, “Well, you can walk with it while you talk with it.” The next day’s article was the first recorded reference to a “Walkie-Talkie.”

In the early days of the War, a Toronto-area factory was commissioned to make the walkie-talkies needed for battle. There, the Canadian model was put through a battery of tests, from dropping and banging them to throwing them over a seaside cliff. “By the time the army got through with them,” Hings later said, “they had to be built like tanks.” In the end it was worth it as the final product was lighter, smaller, more durable and more powerful than any similar product on the battlefield. The British army soon ordered some 18,000 units with the first units arriving on the battlefield just in time for Dieppe. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Canadian and Allied troops lives were saved as a direct result of the walkie-talkie. For the remainder of his days, Hings would receive thank yous and testimonials from all over the world from grateful veterans, continually praising Hings on his work and timeliness.

Hings would travel much during the war, always referred to as a General in case any suspecting enemy ears should hear of who the mastermind behind the device was. After the war, Hings would be decorated with an MBE by King George VI for his service to the Empire. In 2001 Her Excellency the Governor General Adrienne Clarkson would present Hings with the Order of Canada. Upon hearing of this latest declaration, Donald Hings would write to his family:

“When you have seen it all,
the good, the bad and the deceitful;
When you’ve withstood the knocks and failures
And been spun about your successes;
When you’ve had a partner in marriage
Who became your other half in joint endeavours;
When life turned to doing things our way
We received the order of Canada, all of us.”
Donald Hings would patent over 60 other inventions before he passed away at the age of 97 in 2004. The memory of his service during the war, of his tireless passion for invention, for electronics and telecommunications, shall not pass for some time yet.

Milestones
1907 – Donald Lewes Hings was born in Leicester, England, November 6, to Winifred and Arthur Hings.
1910 – Mother & son immigrated to Lethbridge, AB, where Don lived both in town and on a rural farm.
1919 – Mother & son moved to Vancouver where Don attended Chesterfield school in North Vancouver.
1925-27 – Don lived in New Westminster where he completed a 2-year wireless radio course.
1927 – Don moved to Nelson, BC, where he worked as a foreman in the plywood plant. He hired Rakel, newly arrived from Finland, and their courtship began.
1919-29 – Don won many medals in track & field events, and played goalie for Nelson’s soccer team.
1930 – Don and Rakel were married in a double ceremony with her brother, and they all moved to Rossland, BC.
1931-39 – Don worked for CM&S (COMINCO) to develop 2-way voice radio communication for the northern camps.
1933 – Don gets snowed in for the winter up north and treks out with a small group, surprising their families on Christmas Eve; read Don’s own account at page 49.
1940 – The family moved to Ottawa where Don was seconded by the National Research Council to further the Walkie-Talkie pack set for the war.
1945 – The family drives across the country to settle in Burnaby, B.C. where the homestead/lab on Capital Hill was constructed.
1946 – Don received an MBE from King George VI.
1945-72 – Electronic Labs of Canada operated under Don’s expertise fulfilling contracts and securing patents in the areas of radar, antennae, plastics, and later geophysics.
1999 – Don loses his wife, Rakel, after 69 years of marriage.
2001 – Don was presented with the Order of Canada.
2002 – Don received Queen’s Golden Jubilee medal.
2004 – Don leaves 4 children, 15 grandchildren and 28 great-grandchildren with rich memories of a life well lived.