orders, decorations, campaign medals and militaria - Spink

7
The Historically Important C.B.E. and Boer War Pair to Mr. C.S. Franklin, Wireless Telegraph
Department, Who, As Marconi’s Right Hand Man, Was a Giant in the Development of Wireless
Transmission, and Who Developed and Designed the Transmitters Used For Both The First Ever Radio
Broadcast in 1922 and First Ever Television Broadcast in 1936 of the British Broadcasting Corporation
a) The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, 2nd type, Civil Division, Commander’s (C.B.E.) neck Badge,
silver-gilt and enamel, with full neck riband, in Garrard, London, case of issue
b) Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, one clasp, Cape Colony (Mr. C.S. Franklin. Wireless. Tel: Dpt), toned,
extremely fine, extremely scarce, with various photographs and copied research (2)
£1,000-1,200
C.B.E. London Gazette 9.6.1949 Charles Samuel Franklin, Esq., M.I.E.E., Consultant, Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph
Company, Ltd.
Mr. Charles Samuel Franklin, C.B.E., was born in Walthamstow, Essex, in March 1879, the thirteenth child of a local
builder, and was educated at the local school and Finsbury Technical College, where he received his engineering and scientific
training, before working briefly in Manchester and Norwich. In 1899 he joined Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph and Signal
Company, with which he remained associated for the next 40 years. However, no sooner had he started work, he was sent to
South Africa with five other engineers from Marconi to establish the wireless telegraph during the Boer War, the first time the
British Army had attempted to use portable wireless stations in the field. Although the heliograph remained the usual method
of communication, the wireless telegraph played a key part in the operations.
Franklin returned to England in 1902, and was soon appointed Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company’s main wireless
operator. Thus began a long personal association with Guglielmo Marconi, with whom he remained close friends throughout
their lives. In 1902 they sailed across the Atlantic together to investigate the range of wireless messages being sent from their
high-powered transmitter in Cornwall, and such was the success, and the speed of development, that within a year the President
of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt, was able to send a message from the U.S.A. to King Edward VII. The Atlantic
conquered, in 1904 Franklin moved to Russia, where he worked on sending radio messages across vast tracts of land. Returning
to England in 1907, he continued with his work, which by now involved short-wave transmissions, and soon after invented the
multiple tuner, a device that allowed for different signals to be sent and received simultaneously. By 1922 he and Marconi had
established a voice-radio link between London and their station in Cornwall, and had for the first time noticed the effect of
reflections of short-wave signals by large metallic objects located a considerable distance from their transmitter, a finding which
they suggested could be developed so as to allow for short-wave apparatus to be installed on ships to provide warnings as to
the presence of other ships in conditions of poor visibility. That November a Franklin designed transmitter was used for the
first ever broadcast of the newly-formed British Broadcasting Corporation. Later Franklin designed the transmitters and the
aerial system for the BBC station at Alexandra Palace, which transmitted the world’s first regular television service in 1936,
before retiring from day-to-day work in 1939, shortly after Marconi’s death, although staying on as a Consultant. In 1949 he
was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, and awarded the Faraday Medal by the Institute of
Engineering and Technology ‘for his distinguished work in radio engineering, and more particularly for his development of the
beam aerial and other devices that made long-range high-frequency communication a practical possibility.’ He died at home in
Ilford, Essex, in December 1964.
Approximately 6 Queen’s South Africa Medals awarded to the Wireless Telegraph Department.
orders, deCoratioNs, CampaigN medaLs aNd miLitaria
Franklin (second on left) and Marconi (far right) with Pope Pius XI (centre) having installed
a radio telephone service between the Vatican and Castel Gandolfo, the Pope’s summer residence, April 1932
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