ESTABLISHED IN 1872, the Eastern Telegraph Company was an amalgamation of a number of important smaller telegraph companies: John Pender was the company’s Chairman and Sir James Anderson, who had captained the Great Eastern on its successful laying of the 1866 Atlantic cable, was General Manager.
The company developed a huge network of telegraphs by creating new routes and doubling and even trebling cables on busy existing routes. In the early years of the 20th century, the Eastern became part of the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies which incorporated many other telegraph companies from all around the world.
