Origins

How this all came about

In December 2000 Dave Baker - creator of the main Wireless College website - came across the Colwyn Bay site of Dave Williams (www.colwyn1.freeserve.co.uk) which had a photograph of Colwyn Bay pier. Dave tried to buy the picture but Dave Williams wouldn’t accept any money and sent him a free copy. He also promised to check his archive for pictures of the Wireless College.

Not long after this I also came across Dave Williams’ website when researching a film I was making. Dave was a retired Press Photographer and I’m the Programme Secretary of Rhyl Photographic Society, so I emailed Dave, in February 2001, to see if he would give a talk to our society.

In a subsequent telephone conversation I mentioned that I’d been to the WC and he told me that he’d been contacted by Dave Baker and forwarded me his email. Dave and I were old friends from 30-odd years ago and on the February 11th 2001 he got an email from me, completely out of the blue, with some photos I’d taken in the late 1960s.

I had many other photos and Dave (Baker) decided to create the website and it all grew from there. The site first went online on or around 24th February 2001.

The catalyst for it all was Dave Williams and his website. Sadly Dave died on August 30th 2004, aged 71. He did give a very well received talk to Rhyl Photographic Society and was a special guest at the first Wireless College reunion in 2002. We are grateful to him for his role in the creation of the Wireless College website and the subsequent reunions. His Colwyn Bay site is being maintained, in his memory: www.colwyn1.freeserve.co.uk. There is also a link on the main site links page.

Dave Williams was truly a nice guy, he will be sadly missed.

Pete Robinson