Records created and used by the International Telegraph Company

This collection contains secretariat and financial records.

The International Telegraph Company was formed by the Electric Telegraph Company in 1852. The ETC obtained a concession from the Dutch Government in 1852 to lay wires from Orfordness, on the east coast of England, to Scheveningham in Holland and then to The Hague. However, because the Dutch Government objected to the Holland line of the new submarine telegraph cable being made by the ETC, the International Telegraph Company was formed. The new company was managed by the ETC with ETC staff. It laid two cables in 1853 and 1854.

The theoretical separation of the two companies did not operate in practice, with many of the records being kept together in the same volume. Records of the International Telegraph Company are, therefore, sometimes located with those of the Electric Telegraph Company. Such occurrences are noted in the catalogue. In 1855 the International Telegraph Company formally merged with the Electric Telegraph Company to form the Electric and International Telegraph Company.

This collection has been arranged by business function.

Available for research at BT Group Archives, see www.bt.com/archives.

These records were transferred to BT Group Archives from the Post Office Archives between 1 June 1991 and 30 April 1992.

Full catalogues for BT Group Archives can be searched at www.bt.com/archivesonline.

These records were previously catalogued as part of the Post Office collection under the POST 81 and POST 83 classes. They have been recatalogued to better reflect the provenance of these records and to aid access to them.