Copyright Cable and Wireless SA Ltd -
Cable & Wireless very proudly celebrated their centenary on St. Helena on 26 November
1999.
One hundred years is a long time for any company to be anywhere. To maintain
a presence and provide a range of services to customers in such an isolated and remote
location is, we think, rather special. Cable & Wireless have been around for a long
time in many parts of the world and it may be of interest to readers to know something
of the history of the Company, both locally in St. Helena and globally.
Cable & Wireless
traces its origins to 1872 but it was not until 1899 that the Eastern Telegraph Company
(ETC), later to become Cable & Wireless, laid the first telegraph cable into Ruperts
Bay, St. Helena. This was a small but vital part of the chain between South Africa
and Europe and it would later become an important link in the world's most extensive
network of cables.
In those early days the present day site at The Briars was built.
The fact that most of it is still standing is testimony to the thoroughness of ETC
building. Photographs from 1906 show that the operation at that time was very labour
intensive. Over fifty operators and technicians were employed and housed, some in
the buildings that still stand, and others in houses at the rear of the site, long
since demolished.
The ETC was spreading its wings in many directions. Cable stations
grew up in St. Helena, Ascension Island, the Cape Verde Islands and in numerous locations
throughout South America and Africa. In the meantime the Western Telegraph Company
and many other companies, which would later be amalgamated to form Cable & Wireless,
were extending their presence into the Far East, India and Europe. The early decades
of this century saw very rapid expansion of the submarine cable network and by 1934,
when all the associated companies merged to form Cable & Wireless, the new company
owned more than 164,000 nautical miles of cable.
Cable & Wireless was really an overseas
arm of the UK government telecommunications monopoly until it became a Public Limited
Company and was listed on the London Stock Exchange in 1981. As such it served the
Empire, almost in a charitable way and without much regard for making a profit, the
duty of company employees was summarised as follows in an address from the Chairman
in 1950:-
'We want you to be self reliant and resourceful in difficulty. We want
to be able to rely on you confidently to keep open the lines of communication as
far as lies in your power, whatever the difficulties may be'
