Gerald Marcuse
(Eugen) Gerald Marcuse, an early amateur radio operator
c.1886 Born at Sutton, Surrey, the son of Eugene Marcuse, a Seed merchant, and his wife Louisa Roberts.
Attended Caterham Primary School and went to the local secondary school
1900-02 At school in Germany
1902 Apprenticed at iron works in Hildesheim
1904-6 Worked at the Hurtu motor works near Paris
1906 Entered the Crystal Palace School of Practical Engineering
1907 Graduate member of the Inst of Mech. Engineers; studying at Crystal Palace Engineering School[1]
Worked for Ruston, Proctor and Co
1913 Married(1) at Kensington to Hilda K. Pitcher
1922 Moved back to Caterham
c.1925 Living in Caterham. Set an early record for communication with a ship at sea by radio-telephony over a distance of 12,000 miles.
1925 Achieved a record radio communication in daylight of 2,050 miles with received in Mosul.
1927 Lived at Coombe Dingle, Queen's Park, Caterham
1927 Short wave transmissions were well established across the world, due to the pioneering work of early radio amateurs. One of these was Gerald Marcuse, who obtained a permit from the British Postmaster General to transmit speech and music to the British Empire. The first transmission was on 11 September and the experiment continued for almost a year. This led to a demand for short-wave receivers from ex-patriates around the world.
1931 Married(2) at Wokingham to Gladys Irene Rose
1939 Importer of Cereals and Seeds, living in Wokingham with Gladys I. Marcuse 35[2]
1961 Died in Old Bosham, Sussex[3]
1959 Newspaper Article.[4]
MR GERALD MARCUSE, whose call-sign G2NM is known to hundreds of amateur radio experimenters and who lives at Tidewater, Bosham, has achieved some remarkable successes in short-wave transmission since he first built his own set in 1913. One of his proudest possessions is his thick book of Press cuttings, letters, and other mementoes of those early days when his name was in the forefront of experimental radio and reports of his achievements appeared in many newspapers all over the world.
By 1922 he was an acknowledged authority on this new means of communication, and in that year he managed to link up with Halifax, Nova Scotia. In 1925 he was the first amateur to communicate with Dr. Alexander Rice's expedition to the Upper Amazon, a distance of some 7,000 miles, and the first man to break the long silence between civilization and the group of men exploring the wilds of Brazil.
Later in the same year he direct communication by shortwave with the American warship Seattle, then in Wellington Harbour, New Zealand.
By this time he had contributed a number of articles on this new form of communication, had been sent as a delegate to a conference in the United States, and was Vice-President of the International Amateur Radio Union as well as Honorary Secretary of the Radio Society of Great Britain.
He later became the society's President, in recognition of his remarkable successes on the 45 metre waveband.
But his major contribution was undoubtedly towards Empire broadcasting when in 1927, he established his own studio at his Caterham home, and started broadcasting a regular programme to the Dominions. There, with his own family and friends as artists for his thrice weekly programmes, he blazed a radio trail with an experimental transmitting station which was the forerunner of what is now one of the B.B.C.'s most important departments. "I carried on with my experimental work and have never given it up except during the war." he told a reporter. Now, since the crippling effect of osteo-arthritis has compelled him his other hobby, yachting, two years ago. Mr. Marcuse has turned his attention towards "Mobileering".
He has built a small transmitting set in his car and as he drives about West Sussex roads is able to hold direct communication with his many friends, some of them living as far away as Scotland.
See also Radarc.org