Cable and Wireless Ltd

Globe Telegraph and Trust Company Limited was incorporated in 1873 by John Pender, a Liberal MP, who also founded the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group. Globe was formed in order to spread the short term risk of cable laying over a number of companies, and shares in Globe were offered in exchange for shares in submarine telegraph and associated companies. The Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group, meanwhile, was built up by Pender over a number of years in the late 19th century.

In 1928 the Imperial Wireless and Cable Conference recommended that the overseas cable and wireless resources of the British Empire be merged into one system. Cable and Wireless Limited was formed in 1929 to acquire all the ordinary shares of the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group and Marconi Wireless, Telegraph and Signal Company Limited. The name changed to Cable and Wireless (Holding) Limited in 1934. When Cable and Wireless was nationalised in 1946, one third of the issued capital of Cable and Wireless (Holding) Limited was owned by Globe Telegraph and Trust Company Limited, which had from its beginnings been associated with the Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies Group. Cable and Wireless (Holding) Limited was then converted into an investment trust, renamed Cable Trust Limited in 1971 and merged with Globe in 1977.