The Time Department Control Rooms and Time Desk

The earliest view of the Time Desk. First printed in the 18 May 1876 edition of Nature the woodcut was later reused in the 1879 volume of Greenwich Observations

Humphry Smith in the Wireless Room c.1939. From the 24 February 1946 edition of Le Patriote Illustré

The Time Department Control Room. The teleprinter is in the bottom left-hand corner. The clock cellars were located beneath the Control Room. From left to right the individuals are: Irene Manning; Nathy O'Hora; Joan Phillips (who later married Pete Lamb) and Eric Shepherd. Photo courtesy of Monica Everest

The Astronomer Royal, Harold Spencer Jones, in front of the monitoring panel for the group of 12 quartz clocks in 1945. The clocks became operational in 1946

The Time Department Control Room in the basement of the newly completed West Building. The Head of Department, Humphry Smith, is the man in the suit holding the clipboard. The male assistant is Roy Wallis. The two female assistants are thought to be Stella Francis and Dorothy Preece. British Information Service photograph issued April 1959

The Time Desk in the 1960s. From The Royal Greenwich Observatory Herstmonceux guidebook (1967)

The Observatory Director, Alec Boksenberg (left), with Duncan Thomas, the BBC's Director of Resources, Radio, at the special ceremony held on 5 February 1990 to mark the hand-over of the Time Service. Photo courtesy of Patrick Moore