The Dictionary of Australasian Biography/Cracknell, Edward Charles
Cracknell, Edward Charles, Superintendent of Electric Telegraphs, N.S.W., was born at Rochester, England, in 1831, and educated at Oxford. He came to Adelaide as Assistant Superintendent of Telegraphs in Nov. 1855, and became Assistant Superintendent of Telegraphs, N.S.W., in Jan. 1858, opening the first telegraph line to Liverpool on the 26th of that month. In 1861 he became Superintendent of Telegraphs. In 1876 he studied torpedo warfare, and is lieut.-colonel commanding the N.S.W. Torpedo and Signalling Corps. His younger brother, Mr. William John Cracknell, was for many years Superintendent of Telegraphs in Queensland.