The Glace Bay Armoury was renamed in honour of wireless pioneer Guglielmo Marconi on Friday.

The 60-year-old Armoury is used to train combat-capable signalers, a fitting salute since Marconi built his experimental wireless station in Glace Bay at the turn of the 20th century.

In 1902, Marconi made history by transmitting the first wireless message from Table Head — a neighbourhood in Glace Bay — to England.

"The contribution of Dr. Marconi to communications systems around the world is invaluable and it is the basis of our trade as signalers," said Lt.-Col. Dale Warner.

Denis Couillard came from Montreal for the ceremony. He's a director at Ultra Electronics TCS, a company formerly called the Canadian Marconi Company, which was started by Marconi.

"If I was in the signal corps myself, I think I would be inspired to know that my armoury is a couple of hundred feet away from Table Head and these people here are basically the inheritors," he said.

The Armoury will now be known as the Dr. Guglielmo Marconi Armoury.