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DIRECTORATE OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS
How One Man Started Life with DTELS (1946)
By: Robert Swann
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Stanley Edwin William Burningham (Brum) was born on the 10th of October 1923 in Farnham were he attended School until the leaving age of 14 years and then spent the next two years as an Auto electrical apprentice.
From 1938 to 1940 he spent his time as an apprentice radio technician with a local company named HAIL Ltd. Of Farnham.
In 1940 he volunteered for the RAF as Radio opp/Air gunner and was successful in passing his medical. He then waited for his interview for the RAF but when the found out he was a radio serviceman in chivvy street he was asked to go for an interview at an office in Baker Street in London.
After a successful interview he was given a bus pass to Basingstoke were he was interviewed by a Mr. Chandler and accepted as a radio Technician. He was to report to Hannington Depot but had to live out at Pamber Heath in a large house called 'The Red House'. All the staff from Hannington were housed here and this included the operators. All the staff had to do 24 hour shifts and Brum was informed that the work they did concerned the SOE and the SIS.
This work carried on till the end of the war in 1945 and the Home office Wireless Branch was changed from wartime duties to peacetime duties. During the period 1940 to 1945, the depot had 7 kw MF transmitter and HRO receivers and monitored all frequencies.
From 1946 to 1962 he was a junior wireless technician and was then promoted to SWT. He was made CWT in 1975 and finished his time at Cheveley Wireless Depot, where he retired in 1983.
Many thanks to Robert (Bob) Swann for submitting this article. Bob spent 35 years with DTELS. His joined the Directorate in 1956 at Marley Hill where he became established two years later. By 1964 he was promoted to SWT and posted to Cranbrook Depot. In 1969 took up the post of CWT at Cheveley Depot. His final posting was to Horseferry House in 1982 where he worked in HQ Engineering as an SWE before retiring in 1991.
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