A Badge For & Certificate For Continuing Production During Air Raids

[leigh kitchen]

By 1902 there were 5 companies operating telephone services in the UK, all independent & owned by German nationals using equipment from Deutsche Privat Telephon Gesellschaft H Fuld Gmbh of Frankfurt am Main.

One of these companies was The New System Private Telephone Company.

The number of companies increased as the difficulties of persuading executives that rented communication by wire was preferable to shouting communication by speaking tubes were overcome, but following the outbreak of war & loss of German supplies The Telephone Manufacturing Company ?TMC? was formed in the UK, with the intention of providing equipment & services to the customers of The New System Private Telephone Company.

The various installation companies managed their own affairs while TMC concentrated on production of the equipment that they required..

By the end of WWI, TMC had 2 main competitors, but still led the way with their installation companies under their ?A penny per day per instruments? slogan.

In 1920 TMC went public, their name changing toThe Telephone Manufacturing Company (1920) Ltd, becoming established in other countries. Following good years after the war came lean ones & during a short-lived boom in 1929 the company became 2 separate ones, The Telephone Manufacturing Co (1929) Ltd and Telephone Rentals Ltd, thus dividing manufacturing & installation / servicing activities.

With the outbreak of WWII many of TR?s work force were called up into the military & disruption was caused by a move of offices & factories mobilizing for the war effort.

Part of their production were ? The Secrephone? or ?Green Telephone?, which was fitted with a scrambling device & the addition of Chronomatic time recorders with public address tannoys, which were used mainlky for Air Raid Precaution activities within factories & also allowed for morale boosting ?music while you work?.

By 1941 over a 1/3rd of the workforce were in the military & TR was put on the Ministry of Supply?s list of vital concerns.but were heavily hampered by reduced staffing levels, prompting the advertisement for "intelligent girls, aged not less than 18 years, for training in simple electrical maintenance in the London area."

These staff shortages continued through into 1942, rental at that time had reached 120,000 private internal telephones but women staff were by now enlisting into the ATS & WAAF.

By 1944 the company was looking forward to reintegrating personnel at the end of the war,

During WWII TMC opened factories at Malmesbury, near Swindon, Wiltshire, at Bishopbriggs, near Glasgow & at Canterbury, Kent.

Much later, during the 1960?s, TMC Ltd was taken over by the Pye group & renamed Pye TMC Ltd, later, when Pye became part of Philips the TMC name was dropped.

An Melbourne based Australian susbsidary was founded in 1939 as TMC Ltd still operates under the name TMC Radio Pty Ltd after

I aquired this little lapel badge & certificate some years ago, the ?seal? printed on the certificate includes the name of ?Norwood?, where there was a main TMC works at Park Hall (West Norwood).

[leigh kitchen]

Rather a snazzy little pin back badge, about theh size of a modern 10p piece in chromed metal & red & blue enamels. I wonder when these were actually awarded as they seem too expensive a product for WWII manufacture?

Serial number 2398, produced by Thomas Fattorini Ltd Regent St Birmingham.

[leigh kitchen]

The certifcate to "A. Chamberlain" is a wartime issue.

[leigh kitchen]

Accompanying the badge & certifcate was this:

[leigh kitchen]

.and this,presumably part of the envelope that the paperwork came in. The serial number on this scrap of paper does'nt match that on the back of the badge but then perhaps it's a works number rather than the number of the badge awarded to A. Chamberlain.