William Arthur Steel

William Arthur Steel (November 3, 1890 – November 28, 1968) was Canadian Army officer during World War I and radio pioneer.

Steel was born in 1890 in Castleton, Ontario and graduated from electrical engineering from the University of Toronto in 1915

After graduation he joined the Canadian Army ((Permanent Active Militia) in World War I in France as a wireless officer. Post war he became Chief Wireless Officer with the Canadian Army Signals Corps and was in charge of the National Research Council's radio laboratory in the early 1930s.

Steel retired as Lieutenant Colonel in 1936, and later served as a Commissioner with the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission, which became the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He was involved with the William Duncan Herridge in the New Democracy, a party that advocated social credit in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Steel helped create radio network in the Northwest Territories and radio for civil aviation in Canada.

Steel later worked as consultant and involved in the DEW Line.

He died in Ottawa, Ontario, in 1968 and buried at Beechwood Cemetery.