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The Science of Radio as an aid to communications and safety of life at sea was recognised in the first decade of thes century and very quickly ships were equipped with this with this new device leading up to an international convention on the safety of life at sea, setting standards and requirements of equipment and frequencies in use, and most important of all, the Certification of personnel to operate this equipment.

Thus evolved the position on board ship of the Radio Officer - commonly referred to as "Sparkes". They had to be trained as morse operators with a working knowledge of theory and operating of the equipment. The art of telegraphy presented no problems because in those early days, telegraphy (mores code) was extensively used by the Post Office and the Railways. Their operators reached an extremely high standard of proficiency and many operators were happy to change their vocation and "go to sea".

So it was necessary to set up a training centre and because of the Company's association with the Telefunken Company of Germany and the Marconi Company in England, the name of the new venture was the Marconi-Telefunken College of Telegraphy. The first class commenced on the 8th August, 1913. One year later we were at war with Germany and the name was discretely changed to the Marconi School of Wireless and continued through to December 1981.

The School was an integral part of AWA and we shared in the reputation of the Company and its activities.

C.E. Bardwell
Manager
Marconi School of Wireless

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