A Vivex colour photograph entitled 'The Late Hon. Marchese Marconi', taken by Dr Douglas A Spencer in 1934.

Guglielmo Marconi (1874-1937) was a pioneer of wireless telegraphy. He conducted his first experiments in Bologna in 1895, and in 1898 transmitted a radio signal across the English Channel. In 1901 he successfully transmitted a series of signals across the Atlantic, from Cornwall to Newfoundland, Canada, proving for the first time that long-distance radio communication was a practical possibility.