Tales of the Telegraph

by Lt. Col. David Mullineaux

Before the days of radio communications, armies of all nations have needed timely communications. The movement from line-of-sight communications such as smoke signals, semaphore began in the Victorian age and for the British army the Crimea War. Tales of the Telegraph seeks to tell the story of how new technology was introduced through the various conflicts in the late 19th Century.

Tales of the Telegraph tells the story of the introduction of the electric telegraph in the Crimea and how this connected the war quickly back to London for the first time. It fell to the Royal Engineers to provide the infrastructure needed and eventually specialist Army Telegraph Units to operate it. Through the various conflicts that followed across the British Empire in places such as Abyssinia, Afghanistan, Zululand and onto the Boer War the technology developed. This was despite the lack of interest amongst the senior commanders of the British army who largely failed the see the advantages the advancing technology was giving them. Even as late as WWI there had to be a campaign to get British Army officers to use the field telephones they were supplied with.

Tales of the Telegraph provides real insight into the early development of British Army communications after 1850 through to the end of the Boer war. This book provides much detail of the many operational deployments and the challenges faced and tells for many a largely unknown story.

Size: 210 x 297mm, 344 pages ISBN: 9781916264328