GETTY 999 operators in London, 1937

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They are such an accepted part of modern life that it is almost impossible to imagine the world without them. And yet emergency calls, those 999 messages to summon the police, fire brigade, ambulance or coast guard, are only 80 years old. They have just celebrated their anniversary: the first emergency call ever made was on June 30, 1937, with the UK becoming the first country in the world to introduce such a service. Now of course they are in operation all over the world and in the UK we make almost 20 million calls a year.

Emergency calls first came into being after a fi re in 1935 in a house in Wimpole Street, London, which killed five women.

Emergency calls first came into being after a fire in 1935 in a house in Wimpole Street, London, which killed five women

A neighbour tried to ring for the fire brigade and was so appalled at being kept in a queue by the Welbeck telephone exchange, rather than being put through immediately, that he wrote a stiff letter to The Times. A government inquiry ensued. That inquiry resulted in something that was both groundbreaking and breathtakingly simple.

PA At Scotland Yard, police later took over the calls

It suggested a number that would be easily memorised by the public, could be easily found by touch in the dark or in a smoky room and would be immediately recognisable when it rang at the General Post Office, which ran the exchange. The initial scheme covered a 12-mile radius around Oxford Circus. The slightly bemused public were given instructions on how to use the new emergency line via a notice in the Evening News: “Only dial 999... if the matter is urgent, if, for instance, the man in the flat next to yours is murdering his wife or you have seen a heavily masked cat burglar peering round the stack pipe of the local bank building. If the matter is less urgent, if you have merely lost little Towser or a lorry has come to rest in your front garden, just call up the local police.” The first call to lead to an arrest was from Mr and Mrs Stanley Beard, of Elsworthy Road, Hampstead, on July 7, 1937. Mr Beard had heard a noise outside his house at 4.20am and, looking outside, saw a man’s foot. He ran outside and chased the man while his wife dialled 999. Shortly afterwards patrol cars appeared and arrested a man in nearby Primrose Hill. A 24-year old labourer called Thomas Duffy was charged with trying to break into the house. Mr Beard, an architect, pronounced himself to be satisfied with this sound use of taxpayers’ funds.

GETTY Today the emergency services have a computerised service

“My wife made use of the new signal which we were instructed to use yesterday on the telephone and as a result of using that signal almost instantaneous connection was made with the police station. In less than five minutes this man was arrested,” he said. “It struck me, as a householder and fairly large taxpayer, that we are getting something for our money and I was very much impressed.” But not everyone was as upstanding a householder as Mr Beard: of the 1,336 calls made in the first week, 91 were pranks. The early calls were a shock in many ways. They triggered such a loud noise that some of the switchboard girls fainted, a problem that was only solved when engineers stuffed tennis balls into the mouths of the klaxons. “When the raucous buzzer sounded in the quiet disciplined switchrooms a few of the girls found the situation too much for them and had to be carried out,” said an article in the Post Office Telecommunications Journal.

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