&
SOMERSETSHIRE HERALD
Incorporating The
WESTON-SUPER-MARE GAZETTE
& SOMERSET ADVERTISER
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NEARLY 50 YEARS WITH
CABLE COMPANY
MR. PERCY HOPKINSON RETIRES
FROM WESTON OFFICE
Recently retired from his position as
superintendent of the Commercial
Cable Company's offices, Richmond
Street, Weston-super-Mare, is Mr.
Percy Hopkinson, 43 Addicott Road,
Weston, who joined the parent, com-
pany in London 48 years ago.
To mark the occasion the staff at
the Richmond Street offices presented Mr. Hopkinson with a clock and a
fountain pen, while Mrs. Hopkinson
was presented
with flowers.
Mr, Hopkinson
who was born
at Tisbury, near
Salisbury, joined
the company in
London in 1910
as a proba-
tioner. The fol-
lowing year he
went to a sta-
tion at Water-
ville, Ireland,
where he was
Mr. Hopkinson
an 'office electri-
cian. He came
to the Weston
office in 1929,
and, following a series of technical ex-
aminations, became superintendent in
1934.
London Presentation
At a dinner given by the company
in London, Mr. Hopkinson's retire-
ment was marked by the presentation
to him, on behalf of the general staff,
of an electric shaver and a leather
wallet.
Mr. and Mrs. Hopkinson, who were married in London in 1916, have a
married son, Mr. Eric Hopkinson--
who is on the staff of the "Bristol
Evening World," and lives at Weston
--and a married daughter who resides
at Guildford, Surrey.
Now that h has retired, Mr, Hop-
kinson and his Wife are planning to
live on the South coast, but have not
yet decided exactly where. Mr.Hop-
kinson then hopes to devote some of his leisure-time to two of his interests
--archaeology. and sea angling. He is
a member of Weston Parish Church
C,E.M.S. |
His Successor
Mr. Hopkinson's successor as super-
intendent atc the local office is Mr,E.
F, A. Mulholland, 55 Manor Road,
Weston, who
was previously
supervising elec-
trician there. A
native of Rock-
ferry, Birken-
head, Mr.Mul-
holland joined
the company in
1920 and, after
a period of
training worked
in the London
Mr. Mulholland office until
com-
ing to Weston
in 1931.
Mr. Mulhol-
land's wife,
formerly Miss
Mavis Bryant Roe, comes from a well-
known Weston-super-Mare family.
Fully Automatic
The Cable Company's Weston office,
which is fully automatic, is a coastal
repeater station for the main com-
pany, and has a staff of eight techni-
cians who maintain a 24 hour service.
Telegraphic signals which come by
land-line from London are automatic-
ally repeated at the Weston station,
and then cross the 340 miles by sub-
marine cable to the next station at
Waterville on the West coast of Ire-
land. From there, the signals cross the Atlantic to the Azores and New-
foundland, and thence to New York.
Weston is, therefore, the first "link"
in England for messages which origin-
ate from the other side of the Atlantic.
The Commercial Cable Co. is a sub-
sidiary of the American Cable and
Radio Corporation.
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