Comments on: Dorothy Annan’s Murals

By: Linda Granfield

Linda Granfield — Sat, 23 Jul 2022 13:20:30 +0000

Paul Loften–may that wonderful, memorable, piece of pale green paper show up when you’re sifting through a long-forgotten box marked with the ‘wrong’ label. It’s happened to me–box in storage marked ‘kids’ toys’, opened six years later– not full of toys but stuffed with family albums we thought lost.
May you have the same luck!

By: paul loften

paul loften — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 16:22:32 +0000

Thank you Linda . He kept an original copy of that message that was torn from the machine that sent it . I think the last time I must have seen it was aged about 8 or 9 in the late 50’s. It disapeared in the many chaotic house moves that we had in a post war East London . I do have a memory of its dramatic wording. I seem to recall a faded green form with an oficial crown in the corner and it was in the form of a old fashioned telelegram with wording printed onto a white tape. My fathers initials JL was in a the sender box
It began Flash ! Flash ! Flash ! Flash! From the Headquarters of General Bernard Montgomery Lunenberg Heath Germany. I cant recall the precise wording for the rest of the text but it described the German High Command entering SHAEF HQ under a white flag and it announced their formal surrender and the end of the war in Europe . It was an historic message . I wonder where it is now, if it is still in existance

By: gkbowood

gkbowood — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 14:56:48 +0000

What wonderful murals! I wish I could see them in person to appreciate their textures. I think she did a fabulous job of interpreting the physical tools of telecommunication combined with an appealing abstract design. I wonder if there is an image on the web of her lost work ” Expanding Universe”…

By: Linda Granfield

Linda Granfield — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 10:08:55 +0000

Thank you, Paul Loften, for adding your story to today’s SL entry.
Personal history such as that of you and your father bring the past to life, show us ‘snapshots’ we would not see otherwise.

Your last paragraph made me utter “Imagine!” What a message to send out!

By: achim

achim — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 08:12:44 +0000

The new location of the murals is more than adequate for their quality. Beautiful pieces of Midcentury modern!

Love & Peace
ACHIM

By: paul loften

paul loften — Thu, 21 Jul 2022 06:57:44 +0000

I am familiar with these ceramic tiles . My father worked in Fleet Building as an Overseas Telegraphist and then supervisor from its opening in 1960 until his retirement in 1980. When I worked in the city I would often meet him directly outside the building and saw them close up. Sometimes I would go inside to the canteen and meet his friends .Indeed the tiles are remarkable as they do tell a heroic story, which is long forgotten.
He was transferred to the newly built Fleet Building along with most of the staff based in the very old and crumbling King Edward Building opposite St Pauls Station which was the General Headquarters of all Post Office operations . In the early 1950’s telecommunications was under the auspices of Cable & Wireless it was then taken over by the government and became part of the Post Office. Around 1960,it may have been just a bit later, when he was sent to Fleet Building, he was then employed by BT who took over telecommunications from the Post Office .
The tiles show images of the equipment used . Indeed the inside was quite awesome although the exterior was typically bland 1960s façade. I remember corridors and rooms full of telex machines and rows of electronic equipment with the cathodes depicted on the outside wall . There were machines which printed out streams of white tapes with tiny dots. These were fed into the telex machines and the messages were then sent at high speed. In those days telex machines throughout the UK had to be connected by routing through Fleet Building Here was state of the art technology of the 1950 and 60’s which was soon to made totally redundant by the coming of computers and emails .
As for the heroic story. In the early days after the war the staff at Cable and Wireless were largely recruited from those who learned their trade through the armed forces . Mostly old soldiers from the Royal Corp of Signals . They also had to learn the morse code , all the ins and outs of radio communications , lamp signals, and any other means of transmitting messages . Then later on towards the end of the war came Telex communications and typing also became part of their expertise.
Indeed the staff recruited from this generation had many stories to tell from the D Day landings to commando raid at Dieppe . I once met one of his friends Jerzy Bublik a Czech paratrooper whose brother was parachuted into occupied Czechoslovakia and died in a battle under the crypt of a church in Prague . The story was told in the 1976 film Operation Daybreak
My father served as a radio operator and signalman from 1940-5 sometimes in freezing trenches manning a wireless set . Other times in more comfortable surroundings at SHAEF . In 1945 on May 8th he was at Brith Army HQ at Lunenberg Heath where the Germans walked in and surrendered and as the signalman on duty sent the message to Reuters News Agency that the war was at and end .