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Series

Post Office: Telegraphs, Post Office (Overseas)

Catalogue reference: POST 83

What’s it about?

This record is about the Post Office: Telegraphs, Post Office (Overseas) dating from 1819-1934.

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Full description and record details

Reference
POST 83
Title
Post Office: Telegraphs, Post Office (Overseas)
Date
1819-1934
Description

This series consists of a collection of licences, concessions, agreements, treaties, conventions and conferences, correspondence and memoranda between foreign governments negotiating landing rights, maintenance and operation of submarine cable telegraphs; ocean survey reports as well as other reports by officers in the General Post Office and committee reports.

Please see BT Archives online catalogue and The Postal Museum's online catalogue for some descriptions of individual records within this series.

The records in this series reflect a former arrangement and have since been re-catalogued. Please contact BT Archives https://www.bt.com/about/bt/our-history/bt-archives for more information.

Note

For records on telegraphs, private companies see POST 81

Catalogue entries below series level were removed from Discovery, The National Archives' online catalogue, in November 2016 because fuller descriptions were available in The Postal Museum's online catalogue and BT Archives online catalogue.

Arrangement

Note that these records have been rearranged to fit the scheme of arrangement used at BT Archives. The records have been incorporated within TCB and the POST 83 reference numbers are now obsolete.

Held by
BT Group Archives
Legal status
Public Record(s)
Language
English
Physical description
104 file(s)
Access conditions

Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure

Immediate source of acquisition
Custodial history: This series of records, along with other Post Office telecommunications records, was transferred from the Post Office Archives to BT Archives in 1991.
Administrative / biographical background

The first transmission of telegraphic communication to overseas routes was by submarine cable from Dover to Calais in 1850. Private telegraph companies pioneered this work, with the Post Office becoming increasingly involved in the management of overseas cables following its takeover of the UK domestic telegraph network in 1870. Private companies remained active in the international arena, particularly in providing telegraph services to places outside Europe. Many of these companies merged in 1929 to form Cable & Wireless Ltd.

Record URL
https://beta.nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/id/365ed89f-21bc-4f71-ac8a-163f9cc2a0f6/

Catalogue hierarchy

56 records

This record is held at BT Group Archives

9 records

Within the fonds: POST 81-88

Early development of telegraph and telephone services in the UK

You are currently looking at the series: POST 83

Post Office: Telegraphs, Post Office (Overseas)