Sir William Fothergill Cooke (4 May 1806 – 25 June 1879) was an English inventor. With Charles Wheatstone, professor at King's College, London, he was the co-inventor of the Cooke-Wheatstone electrical telegraph, for which a patent was filed in May 1837, and granted on 12 June 1837. Together with John Lewis Ricardo Cooke founded the Electric Telegraph Company, the world's first public telegraph company. This effort commenced on 3 September 1845, with a final consolidation of and assignment to the Company of majority shares of stock in the Cooke-Wheatstone patents that were held between three Company principals including Ricardo and Cooke. Cooke had provided a portion of his shares to the syndicate members in exchange for monies from them: To establish the Company. This formation entered into by contractual indenture on 5 August 1846, provided in part for purchasing the full remaining patent interest and stock held by the telegraph's other co-inventor Charles Wheatstone. British Telecom, the giant multi-national communications corporation based in over 170 countries worldwide today—with head offices situated in Durham and London, England—is a direct descendant of Cooke's Electric Telegraph Company. Cooke was knighted in 1869.
Read more about William Fothergill Cooke: Life, Cooke's Initial Telegraph Development With Wheatstone (1837-1839), First Perfected Commercial Electric Telegraph System (1840), Differences With Wheatstone, Cooke's Contribution To The Telegraph, Electric Telegraph Company (1846)
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“We have found that morals are not, like bacon, to be cured by hanging; nor, like wine, to be improved by sea voyages; nor, like honey, to be preserved in cells.”
—William Cooke Taylor (1800–1849)