FEATURE
THE HISTORY OF CABLE & WIRELESS BY STEWART ASH AND BILL BURNS
I
n the May Issue we explained how the Eastern Telegraph Co (ETC) was formed and grew into the largest telecommunications company in the world under John Pender and his youngest son, John Denison. Then how competition with Marconi’s radio had forced a merger between the two companies in 1929, and that it fell to John Pender’s grandson, John Cuthbert Denison-Pender (18821949), to take the new combined company forward. John Cuthbert joined The Eastern Telegraph Co in 1900, at the age of eighteen. During the First World War, he served in France and Belgium as a Captain and aide-decamp to Major General William Lambton (1863-1936). In 1917, he was captured and remained a prisoner of war until after the 11 November 1918 armistice. On returning to London in late November 1918, he re-joined the ETC. In January 1923, he was appointed Joint Managing Director, replacing his father, a position he retained when he was made Vice Chairman of the company in April 1925. On 1 March 1928, there were three generations of Deni-
Electra House Moorgate 1902-1933
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SUBMARINE TELECOMS MAGAZINE
son-Penders working for The Eastern Telegraph Co when John Jocelyn (1907-65), John Cuthbert’s eldest son, aged twenty-one, joined the London staff as an office junior in the Accounts Department. On 8 April 1929, John Cuthbert was appointed Governor and Joint Managing Director of Cable & Wireless Ltd and Joint Managing Director of Imperial & International Communications Ltd, alongside Admiral Henry William Grant (1870-1949). In July 1930, John Jocelyn was appointed Assistant Secretary of Imperial & International Communications Ltd. The first task of the merged operating company was to rationalise the organisation and reduce the annual overhead. The board members were reduced from 22 to 14 and the workforce was reduced by 13%. On 1 January 1933, the Direct Spanish Telegraph Co, founded by John Pender in 1872 and until then owned by the Denison-Pender family, was acquired. Further acquisitions and liquidations were to follow. When the Eastern Telegraph Co was formed the headquarters had been established at Palmerston Buildings in
New Electra House Victoria Embankment 1933-1955
