Editing Cable & Wireless plc (section)

===1860 to 1901===
[[File:Eastern Telegraph Company Badge.jpg|thumb|Eastern Telegraph Company lapel badge 1914–1918.  Displayed at Porthcurno Telegraph Museum.]]
[[File:Ensign of Pacific Cable Board.svg|thumb|left|Ensign of Pacific Cable Board]]
[[File:House flag of Eastern Telegraph Company.svg|thumb|left|[[House flag]] of Eastern Telegraph Company]]
Cable and Wireless traces its history back to a number of [[Electrical telegraphy in the United Kingdom|British telegraph companies]] founded in the 1860s, and cites Sir [[John Pender]] as the founder.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Cable & Wireless|url=https://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/CandW/Pender/|access-date=2020-08-18|website=Atlantic Cable}}</ref> In 1869, Pender founded the '''Falmouth, Malta, Gibraltar Telegraph Company''' and the '''British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company''', which connected the Anglo-Mediterranean cable (linking [[Malta]] to Alexandria using a cable manufactured by one of Pender's companies) to Britain and India, respectively. The [[London]] to [[Bombay]] telegraph line was completed in 1870, and in 1872 the three companies were merged with the '''Marseilles, Algiers and Malta Telegraph Company''' to form the '''[[Eastern Telegraph Company]]''', with Pender as chairman.<ref name=":0" />

The Eastern Telegraph Company expanded the cable length from 8,860 miles on its founding to 22,400 miles just 15 years later. The company steadily took over a number of companies founded to connect the [[West Indies]] and [[South America]], among them the ''Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company'', leading to a name change to ''The Eastern and Associated Telegraph Companies'' in 1902.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of the Atlantic Cable & Submarine Telegraphy - Cable & Wireless|url=https://atlantic-cable.com/CableCos/CandW/EATC/|access-date=2020-08-18|website=Atlantic Cable}}</ref>