Who invented Radio? In 2009, during my tenure as newsletter editor for the RN Electrical Branch Association (now incorporating the Weapons Branch RNEWBA), I received a request from Mr Mike Dixon. Mike had already completed searches into the career of his grandfather, CPO 1st Class W.J.Dixon, who served from 1902 to 1922. This is the letter. ‘I've always been fascinated by the life in the Royal Navy of my grandfather William Dixon. He served from 1902 to 1922 when he left and joined the Marconi Company at their newly formed Morse Code transmitting station, which was in a 'state of the art' building in Dorchester, and where he lived for a further ten years. In 1901 Marconi had just sent the first signals across the Atlantic, and my grandfather joined up in 1902 as an 'electrician', immediately working 'on-shore' on HMS Defiance (initially), HMS Vernon, HMS Pembroke, and HMS Actaeon All these 'ships' were shore establishments, and although he later spent several two year stints at sea, ( mostly on battleships), the majority of his Navy life was spent in these shore buildings. Now....what was he doing? Were 'electricians' trained at Devonport and Chatham? Is it possible he was an instructor who spent the majority of his time passing on his considerable knowledge of what was then a very new technical trade? OR, due to the fact that when he left to become a 'manager' for Marconi , living with his family in a 'works bungalow' directly on site at the transmitting station , was he engaged in something more experimental in the Navy such as the transmitting of electrical/radio signals in submarines, at the Chatham torpedo depot, or even working on th electrical circuitry of the actual torpedoes. DEFIANCE PRE 1930’s On this subject I dropped a line to Mr. Alan King who is Historical Collections Librarian at Portsmouth City Library. He came up with the the following information which makes the whole subject of just what was going on in those days before the 1st World War even more intriguing . Alan writes:- I have looked up Defiance, Actaeon, Pembroke II and Vernon in B. Warlow, Shore Establishments of the Royal Navy (2nd ed., 2000) and found that the one thing that three of them had in common was torpedoes. Two were connected with the Royal Naval Air Service. Defiance was commissioned as a Torpedo School Ship at Devonport on 31st December 1884. (She was eventually broken up in 1931.) Actaeon was commissioned as a Torpedo School at Sheerness in 1905 and from 1910 was a depot ship for Torpedo Boat Destroyers, Sheerness. Vernon was established as a torpedo school at Portsmouth on 26th April 1876. During World War I she was also the depot ship at Portsmouth for the Auxiliary Patrol. Has anyone any further knowledge of what was going on 'aboard' the Actaeon, Vernon, and Pembroke prior to the 1st World War? When he first joined HMS Defiance it was under the command of * Rear Admiral Sir Henry Jackson who worked extremely closely with Marconi in the early days of his experiments with radio, and who was the key figure in promoting radio on a ship to ship basis in the Navy. Was William encouraged to work on the 'new' radio transmitting signalling by a need by Sir Henry Jackson for competent electricians? Will I ever know? William was a very dour man, and never said a word of what he did to his family. I often wonder whether he was sworn under the Official Secrets Act not to say anything about the work that he undertook, which today would be the equivalent of working on extremely high powered computer guidance systems. Do any of your readers have knowledge of how I could explore the life of an 'electrician' in the early 1900's , when as I read on your web-site - ' the first electrical officer was commissioned in 1918, but the electrical artificers were sanctioned on the 13th May 1901.' Incidentally my grandfather did proceed through the ranks reaching the rank of Chief Petty Officer 1st Class, which he reached in 1915. The family story is that he 'always refused a commission’ but is the truth that there were no commissions 'available' until 1918, and that is why he remained a C.P.O until he left? Any comments, or any knowledge, of the very early days as an electrician in Devonport or Chatham would be most welcome. Mike Dixon [email protected]’ *There is a slight error in Mike’s contention that his grandfather served under Rear Admiral Sir Henry Jackson in Defiance. If CPO Dixon joined in 1902 this could not have been correct as Henry commanded Defiance from 1895 to 1897, first as a commander and then captain. Unfortunately our electrical branch members were unable to help Mike but the piece did start some threads about HMS Defiance. Some of our older members contributed experiences of living and training in Defiance. The name covered three hulks moored on the Hamoaze, Torpoint, that served as a torpedo school and later an electrical training establishment. The original group of ships changed early 1930’s. I include one of the submissions as it describes far better than I the set up that Mike’s grandfather would have experienced. (reproduced under the non-commercial use allowed by BBC/history site). By Petty Officer Len Mason. EA 4th Class DMX 645610 Sir! WW2 People's War © Copyright of content rests with the author . http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/57/a3923057.shtml ‘Just about every ship or mother-ship had an EA of some rating and we were supposed to finish training knowing the layout of supplies to all of them. Town class, County class, frigates, carriers, battleships, the lot. The class room was hot and stuffy in summer or freezing in winter and those sketches kept on coming down and going up again at a rapid rate. DEFIANCE POST 1930’s Just for strangers to that excellent ship it comprised three old tubs lashed together with gangways between - HMS Andromeda which originally had sails as well as engines, she was a prize from the French sometime in the 1800 hundreds - HMS Inconstant, steel hulled - HMS Vulcan with a wooden bottom which used to be copper sheathed until it was discovered with salt water they had a battery between the two ships, so they took the copper off. All three were hardly sea going because, being anchored for years, they had become settled in mud. This meant you didn't get rocked to sleep. Theory instruction was dispensed by officers, practical work by chiefs. We learnt (?) maths, electrical principles, RN history (official and unofficial), how torpedoes worked, trimming gyros, sound powered telephones, Y-dischargers, depth charges, machine shop practice, fitting skills and other bits and pieces. The best bit of fun was firefighting and use of breathing apparatus in smoke filled ships. There was one fire alarm on Andromeda which I had to attend fully kitted. There was a small fire which I found and extinguished, I never admitted I had started it accidentally. Torpedoes were interesting; a 21" torpedo had a four cylinder engine using diesel fuel compressed by 3000 lb. air which caused ignition. The housing was 21" diameter and perhaps 12" long. It had to be stripped and rebuilt for practice. Just about everyone finished assembly with a pipe of some sort left in their box that could not be put in, - so strip and try again. A gyro driven by the 3000 lb. air provided guidance. They had to be trimmed so that on start up the top pivot did not describe a spiral. This required adjusting tiny little screws and could take ages. The workshop equipment looked old enough to have come from the 1800's. The Nile centre lathe with speed control using two pairs of adjustable cones and a vee belt. As one pair opened the other pair closed giving infinitely variable speed. The chiefs weren't quite as old as the lathe but on joining the ship I swopped my hard glazed collars for his soft ones, we were both delighted. Working in a white shirt and black tie took some getting used to, especially as I didn't mind getting dirty. Each mess had mess men who drew our food from the galley and dished it out us. Who can forget the Saturday dinner? Everyone who could was going ashore, including the mess men, so dinner was quick to prepare and quick to clear up. The menu for the day as, - Mashed potatoes (cool), boiled beetroot (cold) and herrings in tomato (cold). A sixpenny "tater oggy" at the station was much preferred. We also had a mess president who supplemented the food and dealt with our rum ration, neat for petty officers and above, watered down rum (grog) for leading hands and below. Rum was drawn from the spirit store under a guard of marines, taken up to the quarter deck of Inconstant and measured out one tot per rating. Any left over, there was never too little, was tipped into the scuppers in full view of all. Although illegal according to Admiralty instructions, it was a currency you could buy favours with or use as a birthday present. You were also not supposed to take it ashore or to save it for future use. Schemes for collecting the tipped away rum were not unknown. There were two routes for going ashore. Route one, row across to Wilcove landing stage and walk a couple of miles down into Torpoint to get the chain ferry across to Devonport.