People Socializing and at Play

Showing people socializing with their work colleagues. Click HERE to let us know if you have any photos you would like to share.

TRC
Here are several pictures of.a TRC leaving do in 1990. If you know what the leaving do was about, please let us know. Click on a picture to enlarge and for names.

ETESSA

The External Telecommunications Executive Sports and Social Association, as the name suggest, ran several different sports and social organisations. Please let us have any photos or information you may about ETESSA. Did you take part in ETESSA sports or social activities?

FOOTBALL

Shown below is a photo of an ETESSA football team in the 1950s. We've only got a few of the players names - in the front row, from the left, Bas Martin, Laurie Bridgland and Geoff Jones. Do you recognise any of the others? Please let us know.

CRICKET

Peter Nutt has sent us a photo of a cricket team from the Services Department taken circa late 1950's. Peter is 3rd from left front row, and in the back row Ron Chinnery 2nd from left, Bill Blanks and Alf Boyling 5th and 6th from the left. Do you recognise anyone else? Let us know.

MUSIC - The Cable & Wireless Band

Tony Hooker, son of Tommy Hooker, has sent us these photographs below of the Cable & Wireless Band, which he found after his Dad passed away, and would like to dedicate them to his memory.

A 'Silver' Brass Band, comprised of uniformed messengers, was formed in 1942, and were always ready to perform morale-boosting concerts for the staff, or to entertain visiting dignitaries.

The band, originally conceived as a ‘Drum and Fife band’, was eventually shaped and honed as a brass band by Arthur Irons (1901 – 1994), a telegraph operator, who had drawn attention to himself by conducting the Tottenham Hotspur band at football matches on Saturdays at White Hart Lane. The 24 members of the silver band were encouraged by an extra allowance of two shillings a week, and the band was to flourish well into the 1970s, still proudly calling itself the ‘Cable and Wireless Band’, despite the company’s change of nomenclature in the meantime. 

They were regular entrants to Brass Band competitions throughout the years, including the annual Daily Herald Brighton Open Brass Band Festival. Some of us can remember the band playing and practising in the EH refectory during the early 60's.

Tommy Hooker can be seen in all of the pictures below - do you recognise him? Do you recognise any of the other bandsmen and bandswomen? Please get in touch if you have any more information about the band.

Norman White advises us that in the photo above right, he is the one on the right of the two men in RAF uniform. Norman says this dates the photo to between May 1949 and May 1951, when he was 'doing his bit' in National Service. 

ZAPPERS

Chris Hicks writes to tell us about the "Zappers":

In 1946 there was an intake of men into Cable and Wireless who had served in all three of the armed forces during WW2. I believe some of them had worked for C&W before joining the forces.  I don’t know the exact details but somehow they became a “group”, adopted the name "Zappers" and wore a distinctive necktie. The picture below, Chris believes, is of the some of the group, taken on the steps of EH - date unknown.

Did you know about the "Zappers"? Were you a "Zapper"? Please let us know if you have any information or photos - see Contacts page. The picture below was sent to Chris by Irwin de Souza.