Background
Born in Calcutta, he was the eldest son of George Hebberd Cable, a superintendent with the Indian Customs and Excise Service. His mother Emily Maria, was the daughter of William Pickersgill, who had served in the Royal Navy.
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Ernest Cable
Edit ProfileEducation
Cable was educated privately and at the University of Calcutta.
Career
After his education Cable became first employed in Calcutta at Ashburner and Company and then worked for Lyall, Rennie and Company, both trading agencys. Aged seventeen he joined Bird and Company, a merchant house which had interests in many different areas of commerce, especially labour contracting (in which it had started), coal and jute. In 1886, he became a partner in the company.
By 1896 it directly employed 15,000 people and contracted 15,000 more.
Much of this expansion was due to Cable"s business acumen and his knowledge of India and good relations with its people. He also set up a subsidiary in the City of London to ease British investments in the company.
By 1914 he was senior partner of the company. In 1917 Bird acquired a controlling interest in F. West. Heilgers and Company, another Calcutta merchant house, creating by far the largest company in India, employing 100,000 people.
Cable was also a director of the Western Assurance Company, the Tanganyika Development Company, and the British America Assurance Company.
In 1903, Cable was elected president of the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and from then sat in the Imperial Legislative Council, headed by the Viceroy of India. After his return to England by 1913, Cable was invited into the Royal Commission on Indian Finance and Currency and in 1916 he was appointed High Sheriff of Devon. In the 1921 New Year"s Honours he was raised to Peerage of the United Kingdom with the title Baron Cable, of Ideford, in the County of Devon.
