Don’t misunderstand me. I am not saying that all of these improvements in the speed of communication had had a bad effect. In 1910 Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen and his lover, Ethel le Neve, were arrested for the murder of his wife, as their ship arrived in Quebec. This case provoked enormous public interest mainly because it was the first time a criminal had been caught as a result of the use of telegraphy. Dr Crippen had murdered his wife and buried her body under the floor of the cellar in their home in Holloway, North London. Although the police had questioned him and searched the house when friends reported his wife’s sudden disappearance, they had found nothing.

The doctor and his secretary left England on The Montrose, bound for Canada. Ethel le Neve was dressed as a young man and travelled as Crippen’s son, Ethan, but the ship’s Captain became suspicious of the boy’s physical build and mannerisms.

Using his new fangled radio, Captain Kendall had his operator send back daily reports to Scotland Yard. Detectives arrived in Montreal before The Montrose by travelling on a faster ship, and so were waiting to arrest the couple.

Clearly this was an incident in which the use of telegraphy was crucial, and it was an event which pleased the public conscience - so much so that Crippen received a very hasty trial and execution.