Sir Edward Wilshaw (3 June 1879 – 3 March 1968) was a British businessman, the chairman of

Cable & Wireless Communications Cable & Wireless Communications Ltd operating as C&W Communications is a telecommunications company which has operations in the Caribbean and Central America. It is owned by Liberty Latin America and is headquartered in Denver, Colorado. It ...

from 1936 to 1947.

Career

Wilshaw began his career as an Eastern Telegraph Company apprentice in 1894. He became Chairman of the company in 1936 and was knighted in 1939. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Wilshaw employed his friend

John Logie Baird John Logie Baird FRSE (; 13 August 188814 June 1946) was a Scottish inventor, electrical engineer, and innovator who demonstrated the world's first live working television system on 26 January 1926. He went on to invent the first publicly dem ...

to work on developing high-speed facsimile transmission. After the war, the new Labour government of Clement Attlee nationalised the company in 1947, and Sir Edward became president of the new company. He later wrote a memoir of his career in the telecommunications industry.

Family

Wilshaw was born in 1879 in Liverpool and died at his London home on 3 March 1968, aged 88. He married Myn Moar in 1912, and they had two daughters. In 1944, his daughter Anne married Flying Officer C.R. Driver, DFM, an RAF officer who had earlier gained fame, in 1939, as one of the first Allied airmen to be decorated in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

. Ronnie Driver is now also known for being the father of actress

Minnie Driver Amelia Fiona Jessica "Minnie" Driver (born 31 January 1970) is an English actress. She rose to prominence with her break-out role in 1995's '' Circle of Friends''. She went on to star in a wide range of films including the cult classic '' Grosse ...

, through his mistress Gaynor Millingto

CS ''Edward Wilshaw''

In 1949, Swan Hunter, Swan, Hunter and Wigham Richardson Ltd. built a / cable ship named the CS ''Edward Wilshaw'', the largest cable repair ship when launched in the C&W fleet. Completed at a cost of £300,000 and with a cable capacity of , she was based in:

Mombasa Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...

during the 1950s;

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

from 1965-70; and the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

from Madang, Papua New Guinea from 1970 to 1979, the year in which she was scrapped at Vigo Spain.

References

1879 births 1968 deaths British businesspeople Knights Bachelor {{UK-business-bio-stub