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Introduction: This report from The Electrician describes a tribute to Cyrus Field and his wife on the occasion of their 50th wedding anniversary, 2nd December 1890. The list of signatories includes many prominent names from the British cable industry, including some from the earliest days of the Atlantic Cable enterprise.
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The Electrician, December 5, 1890, p. 131
Mr. Cyrus W. Field
Mr. Cyrus Field, who was one of the most prominent originators of the work of connecting England with the United States by telegraph cable, on the 2nd instant celebrated his “golden wedding.” The occasion was gladly availed of by his friends in this country to present him with an illuminated address to commemorate that event, and recall the part ho played, in conjunction with Sir John Pender and others, in connection with the bridging of the Atlantic by the electric wire. The result was the signing of the address given below by a number of distinguished persons not necessarily connected with telegraphy, as well as by those who were associated with the laying of the first ocean cable. The contents of the address and the names of the signatories were appropriately telegraphed over one of the Atlantic cables on Tuesday last, the fiftieth anniversary of Mr. Field’s marriage:—
To Cyrus W. Field, Esq., Gramercy Park, New York.
Dear Sir,—We, the undersigned, who have known you for many years, and some of whom have been long and intimately associated with you, desire to express to you and to your amiable and devoted wife our earnest and heartfelt congratulations on your golden wedding day, the 2nd December, 1890. We earnestly wish you both many years of health and happiness, enjoying the fruits of your useful and well-spent lives, and seeing on every side the wide-spreading development of the Submarine Telegraph enterprise in which you, Mr. Field, have laboured so long, so zealously, and so successfully. This great work, pursued by you with unflagging energy and perseverance for many years through the greatest difficulties and hindrances, has now become a first necessity of national and commercial life, and you have the profound satisfaction of knowing that its objects and its results are and ever have been peaceable and beneficent in their character. We ask you to accept this message of our goodwill and good wishes which will be sent to you both over and under the sea.
Very faithfully yours, Argyll, Frederic W. Farrar, Monck, W.E. Gladstone, W.H. Russell, Douglas Galton, Tweeddale, F.A. Bevan, H.D. Gooch, W. Thomson, G. Shaw-Lefevre, J. Russell Reynolds, John Pender, James Anderson, W. Cunard, William Ford, George Elliot, Geo. Henry Richards, W. Shuter, Henry Clifford, Henry C. Forde, W. Andrews, H. Weaver, G. von Chauvin, J.H. Carson, Samuel Canning, Richard C. Mayne, W.S. Cunard, Julius Reuter, H.A.C. Saunders, G.W. Campbell, H.M. Stanley, of Alderley; Margaret Anderson, John H. Puleston, George Cox Bompas, James Stern, H.L. Bischoffsheim, Louis Floersheim, T.H. Wells, J.H. Tritton, W.H. Preece, C.W. Earle, Catherine Gladstone, J.S. Forbes, Caroline Roberta van Wart, G.W. Smalley, Gerald Harper, William Barber, George Grove, Jane Cobden, Thomas B. Potter, Charles Burt, Robert C. Halpin, Edward Satterthwaite, Frank H. Hill, J.C. Parkinson, Richard Collett, W. Leatham Bright. C.W. Stronge, Latimer Clark, R.T. Brown, William Payton, Henry Dever, Lewis Wells, John G. Griffiths, Robert Dudley, Kenneth L.M. Anderson, Julian Goldsmid, John Chatterton, John Temple, Jane E. Lloyd, Frances Baillie, Montague McMurdo, Willoughby Smith, Philip Rawson.”
The following reply was received from Mr. Field:—
All my friends here were much pleased with the address; please thank for me everyone that signed it. I wish that I could thank them in person. Mrs. Field joins me in all kind wishes.
As a further memento of Mr. Field’s connection with the first cable across the Atlantic, a piece of teak from the “Great Eastern” has been handsomely mounted as a walking-stick for presentation to him. On the top a small sketch of the “Great Eastern” has been engraved, and on a band encircling the stick, “Portion of the ‘Great Eastern,’ broken up 1890. Cyrus W. Field, Esq.” |
