FEATURE
PORTRAITS OF SIR JOHN PENDER: 1816-96
John Pender MP Illustrated London News 1863
BY STEWART ASH AND BILL BURNS
T
he celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the first all-British submarine telegraph cable to India were to include an exhibition at the PK Porthcurno – Musewas a draconian dictator. However, this was to backfire on um of Global Communications pkporthcurno.com. Lebouchere, as the epithet would later be used as a term of The programme was intended to be launched on 4 respect and endearment. June with a special ceremony to open the Porthcurno exhiOver John Pender’s lifetime a wide range of drawings, bition, and this was to be co-ordinated with a similar event in Lisbon, at the Museu das Comunicações. These locations etchings, photos, portraits in oils and watercolours of him were produced, and each has its own story, but there are are the two ends of the final segment of the cable to India five portraits that are perhaps the most interesting, with the that went into service on 23 June 1870. However, because final two being linked together in an intriguing tale. of the ‘Lockdown’ due to Covid-19, the Museum is curJohn Pender was elected as Liberal MP for Totnes in a rently closed and the exhibition has been postponed, with a by-election on 12 December 1862, and tentative new date of spring 2021. the news of his election was reportThe exhibition was intended to ed in an article that appeared in the have two main themes: the 1870 cable, Illustrated London News, together with known as ‘The Red Sea Line’, and an engraved portrait, on 21 February the life of Sir John Pender, ‘The Cable 1863. This is the first known image of King’. John Pender was dubbed ‘The John Pender MP. Cable King’ by the Liberal MP HenThe earliest known portrait in oils of ry Du Pré Labouchere (1821-1912) John Pender was commissioned in 1864, during the battle for control of the when he became the first chairman of Direct United States Cable Company, the Telegraph Construction & Mainin 1877. Lebouchere was a shareholder tenance Co (Telcon). To complete the in that company and the proprietor merger between the Gutta Percha Co of a magazine called The Truth, which and Glass, Elliott & Co, John Pender he had founded to expose what in his had risked his entire fortune by putting view were scandals. He used the magaup a personal guarantee of a quarter of zine to vilify Pender and coined the million pounds. This was a risk he took term to describe him in a derogatory again in 1869 in order to promote and manner, intending to imply that he Telcon Portrait of John Pender 1864 MARCH 2020 | ISSUE 111
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