Margery Wace and BBC Empire Talks, 1936–1943.

Abstract

In 1936, six years after joining the BBC as a Talks Assistant, Margery Wace was moved to a new department, Empire Talks, with the job of expanding and professionalising the output. As ‘Empire Talks Organiser’, she quickly impressed with her understanding of the role, her bold scheduling and her ability to get the best out of speakers. The outbreak of the Second World War saw Empire Talks gain heightened significance and Wace was at the forefront of managing an ever-expanding schedule and an ever-growing staff, overseeing hundreds of hours of broadcasting each week. Not one to push herself forward, she worked herself to exhaustion and it was only when, in early 1941, she almost died that BBC executives realised her full-worth, creating her Empire Talks Director. Wace’s death in January 1944, shortly after the birth of her second child, may have contributed to her almost total absence from histories of the Empire Service.