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Southend's Ekco from history
The story of how an Essex radio manufacturing business and its founder changed the world.
Eric Kirkham Cole was born in Rochford and in 1924 founded his own wireless radio and television manufacturing company in Leigh-on-Sea near Southend.
E.K. Cole - known as Ekco - would later expand to produce many different plastic products, including toilet seats, utensils and tape recorders.
Audrey Snee, publisher of the book 'Ekco Sounds - How a Radio Maker Changed the World,' explains how Eric and his business also played a key role in World War Two.
(Picture credit: Anne Schwegmann-Fielding)
