War
Cables in Conflict

As arguably the most secure and reliable method to communicate with governments and the military, telegraphy was vital to the war effort. Despite the need for soldiers during the First World War, civilian telegraphers were not allowed to enlist. Most telegraphers stayed to keep the telegrams flowing, but others resigned and joined up, to be replaced by women operators.

During wartime, telegrams were subject to strict censorship. Censors were placed in telegraph stations across the world. Their job was to intercept and stop messages they thought might help the enemy, and to pass on anything they considered useful to military intelligence.

There were also telegraphers on the front line passing messages between commanders and soldiers. They played an important intelligence role as they intercepted enemy messages, spied on enemy positions and sent fake messages to confuse them.

Cables at War: The War against Submarine Cables

Since the Victorian period, the British government had recognised the strategic importance of being able to control submarine cables in times of war. The nation that controlled the cables would dominate the passage of information around the world.

Within hours of the declaration of war in August 1914, the first offensive action of the British was to cut the German submarine cable to the United States, effectively isolating Germany and her allies. From then on all Germany’s transatlantic telegrams had to be routed through England!

The German’s also recognised the need to disrupt their enemies’ communication network. German warships were used to harass, attack and destroy British cable stations in the Pacific. Most famously the German light cruiser SMS Emden was sunk in 1914, after her sailors raided and destroyed the cable station on the island of Cocos.

Censorship: Censoring Telegrams to Win a War

Even before the First World War began, the British government was considering ways that the telegraph system could be made more secure. Sir John Denison - Pender, son of Sir John Pender, was called in as a representative of the Eastern Telegraph Company. The government split control of telegraphic censorship between two departments: postal (inland telegrams only) and cable (worldwide telegrams via wireless and submarine cables).

By 1913, a new system was formulated. The main aim of censorship was to halt any telegrams that would provide vital information or financial support to the enemy. It was also used to control trade and raw materials to aid the war effort.

Censors were employed by the War Office at strategic stations around the world. With the help of the Eastern Telegraph Company, they worked closely with the telegraphers to control information. Cable censorship was so important that it was organised under Military Operations, M.O.5., and later under Military Intelligence, M.I.8.

The Front Line: Talking and Listening on the Front Line

Frontline communication was vital in the First World War. Telegraphers and wireless operators were used in the Boer War, but were used more extensively in the First World War. Most worked for either the Royal Engineer Signals Service or the Royal Flying Corps. Wireless operators could be found on ships, and at wireless stations on the ground and in the air. Those working alongside the Royal Flying Corps spotted enemy positions and communicated these to artillery batteries, enabling them to direct their fire. When on the ground, these operators were not particularly welcome as their thirty foot masts meant that they could easily be spotted by the enemy.

Field telegraphers kept communication lines open between trenches and head quarters. They also sent false messages and listened in on enemy communications. Information was passed and gathered at Government Communications Head Quarters in France, and by 1917, women were working there as clerks.

Key Workers and Soldiers: The Telegraphers Dilemma

From the outbreak of the First World War, the government recognised the need for efficient and secure global communication. As a result, the government classed the telegraphers of the Eastern Telegraph Company as key workers and they were told that they should not join the armed forces. To many, the government’s request that they stay at their posts was a painful dilemma.

Telegraphers were physically fit young men, engaged by a company that actively promoted an ethos of devotion to duty, and service to the empire and heroic adventure. Should they do their duty and stay at their posts, or should they find glory on the battlefield?

For most, obedience to the government and loyalty to the company meant they would remain with the telegraph, but for others, the call of the war was too strong to resist, and they resigned their positions in order to enlist.

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This British Army telegraph training class in India in 1912 consists of soldiers from different regiments who are being trained on the most up to date equipment. The items on the table include field telephones, Morse keys and in the centre is a Morse inker.

Click on the thumbnails below to enlarge:

    • This British Army telegraph training class in India in 1912 consists of soldiers from different regiments who are being trained on the most up to date equipment. The items on the table include field telephones, Morse keys and in the centre is a Morse inker.
    • This Reserved Occupation Certificate was issued to Henry Collings in 1916 to show that he was an essential civillian worker and excused from Conscription. In 1916, Army Order 203/16 placed Telegraphers into Army Class W Reserve. This was a class for those whose "services are deemed to be more valuable to the country in civil rather than military employment".
    • Telegraph cable and Wireless were strategic weapons during the First World War. One of the first acts of the British Navy in the hours immediately after the declaration of war was to cut the cable linking Germany to the United States. The Germans too, were determined to disrupt the communication systems of their enemies. One of the first cable stations to be attacked was on Fanning Island in the Pacific. It was destroyed by sailors from the German warship Nuremburg, on the 7th September 1914.
    • This drawing from The Zodiac has the caption "DILUTION - The first of the 'Female Clerks' and the distubance she unwittingly caused." Dilution was the term used to describe the replacement of skilled men with unskilled workers during the war. It quickly became associated with the use of female workers. Whilst a novelty to the Eastern Telegraph Company, women operated many inland lines and training schools for female telegraph clerks had been established in both London and Doublin in the 1860s. Ironically, it was the 'British and Irish Magnetic Telegraph Company' that had pioneered the employment of women telegraphers, a company of which Sir John Pender had been a shareholder and Director.
    • The Cable Sections of the Royal Engineers were responsible for the military telegraph. This section was under the command of Willian Elwes and served in the Salonika campaign in Greece. Elwes was Acting Superintendent in Hong Kong in 1915 when the Company released him for military service. In 1919 Elwes was awarded the O.B.E. "for valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in Salonika." In 1922 Elwes was appointed Assistant Secretary of the Eastern Extension Telegraph Company.
    • Whilst Telegraphers were dissuaded from joining the military service several ships from the Eastern Telegraph Company's fleet of cableships took an active role in the conflict. The cableship 'Transmitter' took part in the allied attack on the German Colony of Cameroon in September 1914. 'C.S. Transmitter' along with the warship 'H.M.S. Cumberland' and the gunboat 'H.M.S. Dwarf' led an attack on the German base at Duala. 'C.S. Transmitter' was tasked with creating a temporary telegraph link between the attacking forces and Nigeria, then a British imperial possession. When Duala was captured from the Germans the crew of the C.S. Transmitter were able to establish a permanent link to Nigeria.
    • The fight against 'H.M.A.S. Sydney' was a one sided one. The 'Emden' was out ranged and out gunned. 'Emden' received over 100 hits from the Sydney's guns. Fearing his ship would sink her captain, Karl von Muller, ran her aground on North Keeling Island. From a crew of 360, 101 were killed and 65 wounded. The survivors were all made prisoners of war.
    • This 1913 letter, from the War Office to Sir John Denison Pender, details the realities of the censorship system. The miliary did not have enough men or a thorough knowledge of the submarine telegraph system when the war broke out in 1914. Thus, men from the Eastern Telegraph Company were used to support the military censors. The process of censorship was top secret during the war to stop the enemy sending secrets.
    • Cable Censor Staff photographed for 'The Zodiac' in 1919. Censors were employed to organise and oversee the censorship of telegrams. Eastern Telegraph Company men were active in both creating the censorship system and rolling it out across the empire and friendly countries. At the begining of the war, four military censor officers were sent to Penzance (three ETC clerks helped them), but by August 1915, Porthcurno was fully automatic and the censor only visited once or twice a month.
    • This is a cable map showing the network of telegraph cables between the First Army HQ and the front line trenches in Vimy Ridge, Nord-Pas-de-Calais (represented by a hachured line). This image comes from a secret report written shortly after the battle for Vimy Ridge in April 1917. Can you find the fly that landed on the map when it was photographed for publication?
    • This incomplete Army recruiting form reflects the dilemma faced by cablemen. Collings clearly toyed with the idea of joining the Army and began the process of enlistment. However, the pressure on cablemen was to stay at their posts and Collings ultimately chose to remain in service with the Eastern Telegraph Company.