Royal Signals
From earliest times some form of signalling has been used by armies in the field. The Greeks had the torch telegraph and the water telegraph. Aeneas Tacitus, a Greek military scientist and cryptographer, invented an optical communication system that combines water and beacon telegraphy. Torches indicated the beginnings and the ends of message transmissions while water jars were used to transmit the messages. These jars had a plugged standard-size hole drilled on the bottom side and were filled with water. As those who sent and those who received the message unplugged the jars simultaneously, the water drained out. Because the transmitted messages corresponded to water levels, the sender indicated by torch signal that the appropriate water level has been reached. It is a disadvantage that the possible messages are restricted to a given code, but as this system was mainly used for military purposes, this was offset by the advantage that it was almost impossible for outsiders to understand these messages unless they possessed the codebook.
The Roman army used coloured smoke as a means of communication.The smoke signals network consisted of towers within visible range of each other and had a total length of about 4500 kilometers. It was used for military signaling.
In England, during the 16th century, beacons were used and in 1796 the Admiralty adopted a shutter- type machine, known as the 'Murray Lettering Telegraph', to communicate between London and Devonport. The following year the Army introduced the Radiated Telegraph System, which proved to be a more mobile system than the Murray Telegraph, and was used during the Napoleonic wars.
The next important advances in the field of communications were the invention of the Morse code and the development of the electric telegraph during the period 1835 - 1837. They were used for the first time during the Crimean War in 1854 - 56. It was during this war that specialist soldiers, the signallers, were first expected to provide communications in addition to their other battlefield duties.
The Abyssinian War of 1867 brought further active service experience for field telegraphists and signallers. As a result of the experiences gained in the two campaigns authority was given, in 1869, for the formation of a Signal Wing at the Royal Engineers' Depot at Chatham. In the following year C Telegraph Troop was formed and was responsible for the provision of telegraph communications for the field army. C Troop RE saw active service in the Zulu War of 1879 and it was during this campaign that the heliograph first gained recognition.
A heliograph uses a mirror to reflect sunlight to a distant observer. By moving the mirror the distant observer sees flashes of light that can be used to send a prearranged signalling code.
The first recorded use of a heliograph was in 405 BC when the Ancient Greeks used polished shields to signal in battle, described in Xenophon's Hellenica.
Many of the heliographs were made in India. The heliograph was used extensively during the various campaigns on the North West Frontier of India and continued in an active service role during World War 1 and even in the desert campaign of World War 2. The next major set forward in military communications was the invention of the telephone in 1876 and its introduction into military service.
The first recorded use of a heliograph was in 405 BC when the Ancient Greeks used polished shields to signal in battle, described in Xenophon's Hellenica.
Many of the heliographs were made in India. The heliograph was used extensively during the various campaigns on the North West Frontier of India and continued in an active service role during World War 1 and even in the desert campaign of World War 2. The next major set forward in military communications was the invention of the telephone in 1876 and its introduction into military service.
In 1884, the Telegraph Battalion RE was formed and took part in the Nile Campaign and later played a prominent part in the Ashanti Campaign of 1895 - 1896. It was during this campaign that men of the Telegraph Battalion hacked a path for an overhead line from the Cape coast to Prahsu, covering 72 miles through the jungle. Men of the Telegraph Company staggered out of the jungle, confronted King Prempeh and accepted the surrender of his army. King Prempeh's throne is now displayed in the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford.
The Telegraph
The Telegraph Battalion was mobilized for the South African War and it was during this war that the Wheatstone Automatic Telegraph was successfully introduced. In the years 1895 - 1898, Marconi's experiments in the field of wireless communications were closely watched and in 1899 a wireless system, complete with operators, was hired by the War Office for use in the Boer War. The equipment at the time was heavy and clumsy and the engineers could not get it to work satisfactorily in the dry conditions of South Africa. Therefore, it was not taken into active service during the Boer War.
In 1908 the Royal Engineer Signal Service was formed and provided communications during World War 1. At this time the Dispatch Rider (DR) came into prominence and wireless 'sets' were introduced into service. Wireless communications were provided in France and Flanders and also in the campaigns in Salonika, Palestine and Mesopotamia.
The first official agreement to form a separate Signal Corps was made in 1918 before the end of World War 1, but due to various policy delays the formation of the 'Corps' was delayed until 1920. A Royal Warrant was signed by the Secretary of State for War, the Right Honourable Winston S Churchill, who gave the sovereign's approval for the formation on the 28th June 1920 of a 'Corps of Signals'. Six weeks later His Majesty the King conferred the title 'Royal Corps of Signals'.
During the 1920s and 1930s the Corps increased its strength and had personnel serving in overseas stations such as Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Ceylon, Egypt, Jamaica and many other 'out - posts of the Empire'. The largest portion of the Corps was overseas and one third was concentrated in India.
Modern technology
Throughout World War 2, members of the Corps served in every theatre of war and at the end it had a serving strength of 8,518 officers and 142,472 soldiers. During the war 4,362 members of Royal Signals gave their lives. In the immediate post-war period, the Corps played a full and active part in numerous campaigns being involved in Palestine (1945 - 1948); the long campaign in Malaya which lasted from 1949 until 1960; the Korean War; the various operations in Cyprus, Borneo, Aden, Arabian Peninsula, Kenya and Belize. Throughout this time until the ending of the Cold War, the main body of the Corps was deployed confronting the Communist Bloc forces, manning some of the worlds most sophisticated communications systems from satellites to extensive area systems.
Since 1980, members of the Corps have spearheaded operations including the Falkland Islands campaign, the peace - keeping force in Lebanon and supervising the peaceful transition of Namibia to independence. Over 3,000 members of the Corps joined Operation GRANBY in the Persian Gulf conflict of the late 1980s.
A small museum existed at the Signal Training Centre at Maresfield in 1922, but all trace of the collection vanished when the STC moved to Catterick Camp in 1925. Historic artefacts continued to accumulate, however, in the STC Headquarters Mess and were to form an important element in the Corps Museum's collection.
The present Museum was set up at the suggestion of Colonel G E Sampson, DSO, the Chief Signal Officer, Aldershot Command, who persuaded the Corps Committee in 1934 to look into the possibility of establishing a museum at the STC to record the history of the Corps and to assist in training.
A start was made at setting up a museum collection, but no suitable accommodation could be found in Catterick Camp at that time. The outbreak of war in September 1939 put the whole scheme into abeyance.
After the war the collection remained locked in two huts until may 1950 when the Royal Signals Institution was established and made responsible for the Museum. A Museum display was finally set up in one of the huts and a part-time curator was employed. The next fifteen years were difficult ones for the Museum however, as an extensive programme of rebuilding work at Catterick meant that the Museum had to inhabit a number of temporary premises, never staying more than a few years in any one site.
In 1967, however, the Museum finally found a permanent home when it accompanied the School of Signals to Blandford Camp and was set up in the Entrance Hall to the School. During the next decade the collection continued to grow and small extensions had to be added to the original building in 1977 and 1981. By the mid-1980s the Museum was no longer large enough for its collection, nor could it display the Corps' recent history.
The Corps Committee ordered a review of the Museum's situation and in 1988 decided that the only way forward was to launch a New Museum Project to raise the funds needed to build a larger, purpose built museum at Blandford. Fund raising began in 1989, but coincided with a period of financial stringency and cut backs in Defence expenditure which made it very difficult to raise funds from the Defence Industry or from other outside bodies; though the members of the serving and retired Corps gave generously.
In 1992, therefore, the Corps Committee decided to limit the scope of the Project and to extend the existing Museum premises rather than attempt to construct a stand-alone building. The Project was re-launched and in 1996 the new purpose built extension to the Museum, fitted out with a temporary display, was opened by the Colonel-in Chief. Fund-raising continued and, aided by a grant of £200,000 from the National Lottery the Museum was opened in 1997. The Museum now tells the history of Royal Signals and its antecedents and, military communications from the Crimean War to the present day.
