Early English Telephones
I recently came across early English Telephone Directories and it started me thinking, "Who had the first English Telephone"?
 | The first record I found was for Commander J Campbell Clouston R.N. He was accompanied by other Cloustons in the 1936 issues. I also found an entry for Dr Eric C T Clouston at Tonbridge 7. He did better than this in 1931 in Lavenham Suffolk when he was given Lavenham 4. In 1927 I found his brother John W Clouston at Stratton Park School - Bletchley 28y5, I assume that the y is not a typo as letters appear in other numbers on the page. |
| Amongst the London directories I found that from about 1910 T. Harald Clouston had numbers at his London Addresses. A Miss Clouston also has numbers during the 1920's. A C Clouston is listed in 1916 but I have no idea who this might be. |  |
 | This entry is from the 1894 List of subscribers to the North Shields Exchange. The entry is around until 1928 although at some point the number becomes North Shields 100. I could say that it belongs to John Thomas Clouston, the youngest son of George Clouston and Ann Crooks who was born in 1839. This would be incorrect although the number is his. John Thomas died in 1890 and so you can see the dilemma. In fact the later entries show the address of his business, Albert Edward Dock North Shields, continued by his sons after his death until about 1930. So there it stands to be beaten 1894 - unless you know better! |