Universal Private Telegraph Company
The Universal Private Telegraph Company, Limited was founded in 1861 to exploit Charles Wheatstone’s 1858 Universal Telegraph. It allowed banks, merchants, public bodies and other groups to set up private telegraphs from their homes to their offices, factories or other sites.
Its first directors were Charles Wheatstone and William Fairbairn, a Manchester ironmaster and civil engineer. The company’s engineer was Thomas Page; Lewis Hertslet served as secretary; Nathaniel Holmes was the electrician.
As a nationalised company, its records are kept in the British Telecom Archives. The company issued stamps that are of interest to stamp collectors and are among the most common British telegraph stamps. It is unclear whether they were ever used; only unused copies are known. The stamps show the year in the corners.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 13:08 (CET).