IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0074 CLC/B/101
Held at: London Metropolitan Archives
Title: GLOBE TELEGRAPH AND TRUST COMPANY LIMITED
Date(s): 1717-1980
Level of description: Collection
Extent: 729 production units.
Name of creator(s): Various.
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Globe Telegraph and Trust Company Limited was incorporated in 1873 by John Pender, a Liberal MP, who also founded the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group. Globe was formed in order to spread the short term risk of cable laying over a number of companies, and shares in Globe were offered in exchange for shares in submarine telegraph and associated companies. The Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group, meanwhile, was built up by Pender over a number of years in the late 19th century, as described below.
MEDITERRANEAN AND INDIA. 1869: British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company Limited was formed to lay a cable from Bombay to Suez and thence to Alexandria and to Malta; and Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Company Limited was formed to complete the chain to England with cables via Gibraltar and Portugal. 1872: British Indian Submarine; Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta; Marseilles, Algiers and Malta (formed 1870); and Anglo-Mediterranean (formed 1868) telegraph companies were amalgamated by Pender to form Eastern Telegraph Company Limited.
THE FAR EAST. 1869: British Indian Extension Telegraph Company Limited was formed to lay a cable from Madras to Penang and on to Singapore. 1870: British Australian Telegraph Company Limited was formed to bring Australia within the ambit of submarine telegraph communication with Britain and laid a cable from Singapore to Java and on to Australia. 1869: Pender had meantime formed China Submarine Telegraph Company Limited to extend the cable from Singapore to Hong Kong via Saigon. 1873: Pender amalgamated the above three far eastern companies into Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company Limited which, with Eastern Telegraph Company Limited, formed the nucleus of the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group.
SOUTH AMERICA. 1865: River Plate Telegraph Company Limited was formed, with a head office in Scotland, to lay a cable across the mouth of the River Plate and operate a telegraph service between Argentina and Uruguay. 1872: Companhia Telegrafica Platino Brasileira was incorporated in Brazil, but reformed in England in 1878, as London Platino Brazilian Telegraph Company Limited and became part of the Eastern Group. 1892: Pacific and European Telegraph Company Limited was formed to compete with South American telegraph companies which connected the main Brazilian ports with each other and with Europe.
AFRICA: 1879: Eastern and South African Telegraph Company Limited was formed to lay cables up the east coast of Africa from Durban to Aden where they would join Eastern Telegraph Company's main line system. 1885: West African Telegraph Company Limited was formed to lay cables along the west coast of Africa and connect them with, in the main, foreign government systems. 1885: African Direct Telegraph Company Limited was formed to link the main British ports on the west coast of Africa with each other and with England. 1889: Eastern and South African, West African and African Direct all became part of the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group.
AZORES. 1893: Europe and Azores Telegraph Company Limited was formed under the aegis of the Eastern Group to lay a cable from Lisbon to the Azores.
By the turn of the century, therefore, the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group possessed a virtual monopoly of worldwide communication by telegraph cable. However, from this time on, cable communication came increasingly into competition with wireless telegraphy, chiefly in the form of Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Company Limited.
In 1928 the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference recommended that the overseas cable and wireless resources of the British Empire be merged into one system. As a result Cable and Wireless Limited (known from 1934 as Cable and Wireless (Holding) Limited) was formed in 1929 to acquire the shares of both the Eastern Group and the Marconi company, and Imperial and International Communications Limited (known from 1934 as Cable and Wireless Limited) was formed also in 1929 to acquire the communications assets of both the Eastern Group and the Marconi company.
In 1935 Globe Telegraph and Trust Company Limited acquired Cables Investment Trust Limited as a subsidiary. In 1946, when Cable and Wireless was nationalised, Globe owned a third of Cable and Wireless (Holding) Limited which was converted into an investment trust. It was renamed in 1971 as Cable Trust Limited. Since 1948 Globe and its associates have been concerned chiefly with general investment business, and in 1969 Globe was renamed as Globe Investment Trust Limited. In 1977 it merged with Cable Trust Limited.
Globe and the associated telegraph companies had offices at Winchester House, Old Broad Street until 1902; Electra House, Moorgate, until 1933; then Electra House, Temple Place, Victoria Embankment (more recently known as Globe House). Cable and Wireless shared accommodation with Globe until 1955 when Cable and Wireless moved to Mercury House, Theobalds Road, WC1.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Records of the Globe Telegraph and Trust Company Limited, with records of predecessor and subsidiary organisations as listed below. The records include: minutes and papers presented at meetings, annual reports, constitutional documents, deeds, reports, financial records, administrative files, staff magazines and histories. Deeds which survive from 1717 pre-date the establishment of the business.
Predecessor/subsidiary companies with records in this collection:
Globe Telegraph and Trust Co Ltd;
Aberdeen, Ceylon and Eastern Trust Ltd;
Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London Trust Ltd;
African Direct Telegraph Co Ltd;
Associated Cable Companies;
British Australian Telegraph Co Ltd;
British Indian Extension Telegraph Co Ltd;
British Indian Submarine Telegraph Co Ltd;
Cable and Wireless (Holding) Ltd;
Cable and Wireless Ltd;
Cables Investment Trust Ltd;
China Submarine Telegraph Co Ltd;
Companhia Telegrafica Platino Brasileira;
Connaught Trust Ltd;
Deutsche See Telegraphen Gesellschaft;
Direct Spanish Telegraph Co Ltd;
Eastern and South African Telegraph Co Ltd;
Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Co Ltd;
Eastern Telegraph Co Ltd;
Electra House Ltd;
Europe and Azores Telegraph Co Ltd;
Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Co Ltd;
Great Western Telegraph Co Ltd;
Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Co Ltd;
Mediterranean Extension Telegraph Co Ltd;
Pacific and European Telegraph Co Ltd;
River Plate Telegraph Co Ltd;
Share Investment Trust;
Victoria Embankment Properties Ltd;
West African Telegraph Co Ltd.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
CLC/B/101-01: Globe Telegraph and Trust Co Ltd (Ms 24210-27 and 24554-6);
CLC/B/101-02: Aberdeen, Ceylon and Eastern Trust Ltd (Mss 24228-9A);
CLC/B/101-03: Aberdeen, Edinburgh and London Trust Ltd (Mss 24230-2);
CLC/B/101-04: African Direct Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24233-9);
CLC/B/101-05: Associated Cable Companies (Mss 24240-5);
CLC/B/101-06: British Australian Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24246-8);
CLC/B/101-07: British Indian Extension Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24249-52);
CLC/B/101-08: British Indian Submarine Telegraph Co Ltd (Ms 24253);
CLC/B/101-09: Cable and Wireless (Holding) Ltd (Mss 24254-76 and 24557-67);
CLC/B/101-10: Cable and Wireless Ltd (Mss 24277-82);
CLC/B/101-11: Cables Investment Trust Ltd (Mss 24283-90);
CLC/B/101-12: China Submarine Telegraph Co Ltd (Ms 24291);
CLC/B/101-13: Companhia Telegrafica Platino Brasileira (Mss 24292-3);
CLC/B/101-14: Connaught Trust Ltd (Mss 24294 and 24568-72);
CLC/B/101-15: Deutsche See Telegraphen Gesellschaft (Ms 24295);
CLC/B/101-16: Direct Spanish Telegraph Co Ltd (Ms 24296);
CLC/B/101-17: Eastern and South African Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24297-304);
CLC/B/101-18: Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24305-7);
CLC/B/101-19: Eastern Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24308-10);
CLC/B/101-20: Electra House Ltd (Mss 24311-16);
CLC/B/101-21: Europe and Azores Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24317-22);
CLC/B/101-22: Falmouth, Gibraltar and Malta Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24323-4);
CLC/B/101-23: Great Western Telegraph Co Ltd (Ms 24325);
CLC/B/101-24: Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Co Ltd (Ms 24327);
CLC/B/101-25: Mediterranean Extension Telegraph Co Ltd (Ms 24328;
CLC/B/101-26: Pacific and European Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24329-32);
CLC/B/101-27: River Plate Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24333-4);
CLC/B/101-28: Share Investment Trust (Ms 24335);
CLC/B/101-29: Victoria Embankment Properties Ltd (Mss 24336-44);
CLC/B/101-30: West African Telegraph Co Ltd (Mss 24345-53).
Conditions governing access:
Access by appointment only. Please contact staff.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copyright to this collection rests with the City of London.
Finding aids:
Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
The records of Globe, of numerous associated telegraph and investment companies, and of Cable and Wireless (Holding) Limited, and also some records of Cable and Wireless Limited, were deposited in the Manuscripts Section of Guildhall Library in 1990 by Globe Investment Trust Plc, when Globe was taken over by British Coal's pensions fund. The Guildhall Library Manuscripts Section merged with the London Metropolitan Archives in 2009.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Related material:
Further records of Cable and Wireless Ltd and associated companies are held by the PK Trust in Cornwall (see www.porthcurno.org.uk for further details. Information current as at 01/2011).
For records of the International Submarine Telegraph Memorial (Ms 24326) see CLC/B/227-103.
Publication note:
For further background see K C Baglehole, A Century of Service: a Brief History of Cable and Wireless Ltd 1868-1968 and Hugh Barty-King, Girdle Round the Earth, The Story of Cable and Wireless and its predecessors, copies of both of which are held by the Printed Books Section of Guildhall Library.
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Date(s) of descriptions: November 2010 to January 2011.