TWO west Dorset men have been sharing parts of the area's illustrious past with an international audience.

Bridport's Peter Garland and Paul Hawkins from Dorchester were sharing the history of Dorchester Radio Station on the Bridport Road at an International Wireless Conference in Bologna Italy.

In the presence of Princess Elettra Marconi, daughter of the great radio inventor Guglielmo Marconi, Mr Garland and Mr Hawkins, once employed at the station, recalled a time when Dorchester was an important part of Marconi’s network of Beam Wireless Stations.

They were both apprentices at Dorchester radio station, Mr Garland starting work in 1964 and Mr Hawkins in 1967.

Mr Garland, now a vice president at a major Canadian Space company and who recently received the American Institute of Astronautics and Aerospace 2014 award for contribution to Space Communications, told the audience about Marconi’s early Long Wave service between Ireland and Canada and how Marconi’s experiments with Short Wave technology were conducted between Poldhu Cornwall and his Yacht Elettra, after which his daughter was named.

Success in these experiments allowed Marconi to propose to the British Government a chain of wireless stations spanning the Empire. In fact the first transmission on this network took place on 25th October 1926 from Bodmin Radio Station in Cornwall to Yamachichi receiving station, co incidentally not far from Mr Garland's home in Montreal.

Mr Hawkins, who has had a long career in radio communications with time in the USA and who recent retired from the Thales company in Templecombe Somerset, drew on his extensive research and access to station archives to describe how the Dorchester station was built, commencing operation in 1927 providing a global telegraph network via the Marconi company.

He recalled the technology involved at Dorchester including the massive Beam Antenna Arrays with their distinctive ‘T’ shaped antenna masts that dominated the Dorchester skyline for many years, beaming signals to the USA, Canada, South America, the middle and far east.

He was also able to share with Princess Elettra photographs of her father when he visited Dorchester and was entertained by local dignitaries at the Gloucester Hotel in Weymouth and stories of the close relationship her father had with many of the early station staff, relatives of whom were the still working at the station when it closed in 1979.

Mr Garland said: "Marconi came to England as a 25 year old and found great support for his work at a time of rapid progress in Victorian science and technology. This support continued when Britain needed alternatives to cable in order to connect with the far flung reaches of the Empire."

Mr Hawkins added: "We both owe a great deal to the opportunity given to us during our time at Dorchester and this was a way to give back to all the people who worked there and who were mentors early in our careers.

The two men and their wives were thrilled to be invited by Princess Elettra, now a very active 85 year old living in Rome, to Villa Griffone, the Marconi family home.

Princess Elettra was keen to show them the attic window from where her father, at the age of, twenty one made his first successful radio transmission to a hill on the estate 2 kms away.

The Princess gave a keynote address at the conference and the men said she provided entertaining and lively company during the whole conference, enchanting everyone by her passion for her father’s work.

In fact, a highlight of the week for Peter and Paul was a private visit with their wives accompanied by Princess Elettra to Villa Griffone, the Marconi family home, just outside Bologna. Princess Elettra was keen to show them the attic window from where her father, at the age of, twenty one made his first successful radio transmission to a hill on the estate 2 Kms away. The villa is now the “Guglielmo Marconi Foundation” and museum, associated with the University of Bologna.

Pictures to be attached:

1) Peter, Paul and Princess Elettra

2) The 1928 classic shot of Dorchester and the Beam antennas