Telephones & Telegraph: Instant Communications

The telegraph network tripled in size during the war. Nearly 60,000 telephone circuits were provided for the use of the Forces. The mileage of telephone lines made available to the Forces was greater than the whole network available for the public before the war.

Civilians were urged to write and not use telegrams and phones unless absolutely necessary, especially after the Central Telegraph Office was completely destroyed in 1942. 

The local postmaster A W B Mowbray described the arrival of Dunkirk evacuees at Dover on 5 June, 1940:

'…as boats of every size imaginable were emptied of their human cargoes hundreds of telegrams were handed in… the senders, somebody’s fathers, somebody’s sons, were indeed straight from the jaws of Hell, back from the gates of death, and the little we could do to assist them to relieve the anxiety at home was so gladly undertaken.'

Bad news from the front was carried to people’s homes by young telegram boys. People dreaded telegram boys stopping at their door with bad news. It was a hard job at such a young age. In a poem, written by a telegram boy in the war, he described himself as an ‘Angel of Death’.

However, sometimes telegrams contained some good news, such as this notification of honours granted to Sergeant F H Steel in 1945.