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The Post Office began to consider the benefits of introducing automatic data processing (ADP) in the 1950s. The first large scale application of a computerised system to Post Office operations was the introduction of the LEAPS system (London Electronic Agency for Pay and Statistics) in 1958. Prior to this, computers had been used in remittance work and postmaster balancing work, as well as in the Post Office Savings Bank.

The LEAPS system was introduced to replace the manual preparation of pay. Two Elliot 405 computers were developed and used for payroll, pensions and statistical work; this meant that the Post Office was now one of the largest users of ADP equipment in the UK.

Gradually, computer applications and ADP systems were proposed and introduced throughout the organisation. In 1961, the Post Office looked at ten areas of Head Post Office work where ADP could be applied. The areas considered were: mail circulation; delivery and collection planning; motor transport scheduling; payroll and staff; postal staff planning and control; cash accounting by counter machine; broadcast receiving licences; postal costing; income and expenditure accounting. A review was undertaken and it was decided to proceed with computer application in all these areas. Eventually, ADP and the use of computer applications and systems were applied to all aspects of postal work.

Several factors had to be considered each time a new proposal for a computer application/system was thought up - the Post Office had to consider whether or not it was profitable to introduce the new system and if there was an urgent need for it, as well as the practicialities of implementation and optimum timing. They also had to think about the effect it would have on the public and on Post Office staff as, inevitably, the introduction of ADP and computer applications meant that fewer staff were needed.

Up until 1969, the Post Office was a government department. Its change of status brought in legislation, namely the Post Office Data Processing Act, 1967 (see related material) which enabled the establishment of the Data Processing Service. The Data Processing Service had two arms - the Post Office Data Processing Service (PODPS) which provided ADP services and support to the Post Office and the National Data Processing Service which worked for external customers.

While the 1960s saw the Post Office considering ways of introducing ADP, the following decades saw the increasing use of computers in Post Office work, particularly in the 1980s with various plans to implement and improve computer systems for data capture and streamlining data processing methods. The counter automation project in the 1980s (which looked at the possibility of introducing a computer system to record cash transactions at local offices) is just one example.

The 1980s also saw the Post Office's Information Technology Department informing people of their work and developing IT strategies; the work resulted in the introduction of several computer systems to assist with the day to day running of the Post Office.

Around 1990 the Information Technology Business of the Post Office became known as 'iT'.

In the following passage of writing, a selection of the major Acts of Parliament that have affected the Post Office over the centuries, and that can be found within this class of records, are described in a little more detail.

An Act for the Settling of the Postage of England, Scotland and Ireland 1657 (POST 114/1):

In 1635, Charles I made the Royal Posts officially available for public use for the first time. Unlike Charles, this service survived the Civil War and in 1657, Oliver Cromwell's parliament passed an Act that established a number of important principles that would guide the early Post Office during its subsequent expansion. On the second page of the Act is the following passage: 'Be it enacted by his highness the Lord Protector and the parliament… that from henceforth there be one general office to be called and known by the name of the Post Office of England'. And so the General Post Office (GPO) came into being. The Act established the position of Postmaster General (which remained the head Post Office position until the role was eventually abolished with the Post Office Act of 1969) and rates of postage were also set forth. To send one letter anywhere within 80 miles of London cost two pence; to Scotland, four pence; and to send a letter as far as towns in France, or even to Constantinople, cost one shilling. Finally, the Act claimed for the Crown the sole right to offer a postal service within the British Isles, establishing a state monopoly that would survive until the new millennium. Any person or organisation found to be offering postal services without the proper authority could be fined £1000 for each month the service was active (p.10). There have been numerous subsequent Acts of parliament that have modified the terms of this monopoly, such as the 1837 Post Office Management Act and Post Office Offences Act (POST 114/5).

Conveyance of Mail Acts: Mail Coaches (1790) and Railways (1838) (POST 114/52 and 53):

In the last quarter of the eighteenth century, the Post Office introduced a new method of conveying letters and parcels across Britain that greatly contributed to a growth and improvement of postal services and an expansion of the organisation. A system of mail coaches was developed that became the principal method of conveyance of mails until trains came to dominate from the 1840s onwards. The Stage Coach Act of 1790 laid down rules for the new system. Turnpike charges, the number of horses per carriage, the number of passengers per carriage, fines for mail guards who unnecessarily fired their issued guns and other details were set forth. The champion of the new mail coaches was John Palmer who was the first to see that armed mail coaches travelling on improved roads according to a precise timetable could make postal communications more efficient. This it did, and it was the first of a number of significant transportation changes that would facilitate great leaps in the growth of mail volumes that could be effectively handled by the Post Office. The mail coach system eventually passed away as the trains of the industrial revolution became the prime method of transporting the mails over distance. The Conveyance of Mails by railways Act of 1838 gave the Postmaster General the authority to require railway companies to carry mails at the direction of the Post Office in return for suitable payment, with fines imposed upon companies who refused. The Royal Arms were to be painted on these carriages and from the early 1840s, Travelling Post Offices (TPO) - trains that would carry the mails and staff to sort them whilst in transit - began to run, with over 100 in operation by the end of the century. Further Railway Acts with various amendments were passed in 1844 and 1868.

Superannuation Act 1859 (Post 114/105)

State pensions could be claimed at the age of 70 from 1908 and this marked the beginning of improved welfare provisions in Britain aimed at tackling the poverty and hardships that had been perennially associated with old age. For much of the nineteenth century, those who became too old to work had to rely on the meagre provisions of family, charity and the Poor Law to survive and in this respect, the Superannuation Act of 19 April 1859 meant that working for the Post Office as an established employee became a vocation coveted for the financial securities it offered later in life. From this date, pensions were paid to employees after at least ten years service at one-sixtieth of retirement pay, rising to a maximum of four-sixths. Those who retired earlier than age 60 for health reasons could expect to receive one month's pay for each year of service. Further pensions acts were passed by parliament through the nineteenth century (also reproduced in this volume; see also POST 114/106), which expanded upon the provisions of the landmark 1859 act and added various adjustments to pension and gratuity entitlement. From 1909, standard pension entitlement was slightly reduced, but a lump sum to the value of one-thirtieth of retirement pay was added, in addition to other entitlements such as a gratuity worth one year's wages paid to the family of an employee who died in service.

Savings Bank Act 1861 (POST 114/89)

By the mid-nineteenth century the debate about the role the state should play in the country's personal banking had grown in importance. The old Trustee Savings Banks handed their takings to the government for investment and received a fixed yearly dividend in return. This system did not facilitate small savings and depositors often had to travel a great distance to use such services. Although Rowland Hill, who was still secretary of the Post Office at the end of the 1850s, opposed further state (Post Office) intervention into financial services, others such as Frank Scudamore and John Tilley favoured the introduction of a set of reforms that would see the department take primary responsibility in administrating a personal savings facility. In 1861, having been introduced by Chancellor of the Exchequer William Gladstone, the Savings Bank Act was passed by the Palmerston Government and business began on 16 September. What was new about the service was that it was state-run and therefore enjoyed high security; deposits and withdrawals could be made at different post offices for one account by using a 'depositor's book'; small sums under one pound could be deposited; and account holders received a dividend equivalent to the value of interest accrued by state investment of their money, rather than a fixed rate. This meant that poorer people could now more easily use such services and the Post Office Savings Bank grew rapidly. In 1862, 178,000 accounts held £1.7m and by the turn of the century these figures had risen to 8.5m accounts and £136m in deposits (note that many people, as well as clubs and societies, held numerous accounts). Banking services remained an important part of the Post Office. In 1969, the service became known as National Savings.

Post Office Act 1969 (POST 114/14)

The Post Office Act of 1969 is one of the landmark events in the history of the organisation during the twentieth century. By this time, the Post Office, still a department of government, had acquired full responsibility for running an array of national services including postal communications, the ever-growing telephone system, a national savings bank (including National GIRO, introduced in 1968), pensions and much else besides. When the 1969 legislation came into effect on 1 October, it made a number of significant changes. Firstly, the Post Office ceased to be a government department and became a public corporation with all of its shares owned by the government. Organisational changes to this effect had been underway since the beginning of the decade and by 1969 it had been generally accepted that the new corporate status was necessary for the organisation to become a profitable entity in the post-war economy. This meant that the historic position of Postmaster General was abolished and a new Post Office Board reported to the Minister of Posts and Telecommunications, a newly established ministerial position. Secondly, this legislation effectively divided the organisation into two distinct businesses: posts and telecommunications. It was felt that this would ensure a more efficient service for both and facilitate the ongoing modernisation that it was hoped would improve the profit margins of the Post Office as a whole. In reality, the Post Office Act of 1969 paved the way for the telecommunications side of the business to be separated from Post Office management entirely and it was eventually privatised in the early 1980s. The Act itself is 264 pages long and addresses other issues such as finance, banking, pensions, stamps and the status of the Post Office's postal and telecommunications monopoly.

Since the mid-nineteenth century, staff associations and unions have come into existence, acting on behalf of their members primarily on issues of pay and working conditions. In addition, clubs and societies have been formed, providing social and leisure opportunities. By 1890, the British workforce had been organised into workers unions and associations to a far greater degree than it had previously and the Post Office, which had grown in numbers as well as in the variety of its services (and therefore in the variety of occupations falling under its employment), was very much a part of this development. There were over 40 distinct grades of employment in the organisation and each had its own staff association. In 1919 these were amalgamated into the Union of Post Office Workers (UPW), although secessionist groups continued to break away from the UPW, which consequently struggled to remain united (which is perhaps explained by the diverse range of working conditions and pay that its members experienced). From the large-scale public enquiries at the beginning of the century, to the wholesale workers' strike of 1971, to the 1995 amalgamation into the Communications Workers' Union (CWU), staff associations, unions, clubs and societies have been an integral component, as collective organisations, to the history and development of the Post Office and its workforce. See POST 65 (Post Office Staff Associations) for relevant records and a more detailed account of this subject.

The majority of these associations and unions produced some form of literature, many publishing an association or union magazine or periodical. It is a wide range of this kind of material that is present in POST 115, which consists of in excess of 1,000 volumes. The class has been divided into eight Sub-Series, which cover the main types of publications that can be found. These are: Civil Service Associations Journals; Post Office Clerks Associations Journals; Postmen's Associations Journals; Postmasters' Associations Journals; Supervisory Grades Associations Journals; Post Office Engineering Union and Association Journals; Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal; and The Rowland Hill Benevolent Fund. It is important to note that the official Post Office Magazine (entitled 'St Martin's le Grand' until its name changed to 'The Post Office Magazine' in 1934) is not an association, society or club publication and can consequently be found in POST 92.

The largest association in the history of Post Office staff associations is the UPW, which was formed in 1919 from the numerous, disparate and less formal associations that preceded this. In 1920, the UPW launched its official journal called 'The Post, the Organ of the Union of Post Office Workers' (Commonly referred to simply as 'The Post'). The first issue sold almost 90,000 copies and in another early issue, the editorial noted that 'Standing on the threshold of the New Year [1920] we are, as postal workers, confronted with one outstanding fact - amalgamation has occurred' (POST 115/437, p.27; p.32). This periodical is likewise a useful source of information (albeit from a UPW perspective) for subsequent events of importance to the Post Office through the twentieth century. Indeed, Martin Daunton and Alan Clinton (the two most prominent historians of the modern Post Office) have both made heavy use of 'The Post' in their work. Its name changed to 'The Post, the Journal of the Communication Union Workers' in 1980 and continued to be published until 1993. It should also be noted that 'The Post' is distinct from 'The Post of UPW House' which was a UPW newspaper that was filled with similar, but more informal content.

Beyond the 3,700+ issues of 'The Post', there remains over 45 distinct association and union publications that are available to view in POST 115. From 1890, the publications that predate the 1919 amalgamation include: 'The Postman's Gazette', 'The Post (the Organ of the Fawcett Association)', 'The Central London Review and The Postal and Telegraph Record', amongst others. There are journals representing women only such as 'Opportunity, The Organ of the Federation of Women Civil Servants' and many publications that relate to a particular issue of concern such as 'The Whitley Bulletin, The Official Publication of the National Whitley Council for the Civil Service'. Other major publications representing particular grades and types of employment include: 'The Controlling Officers' Journal'; 'The Sub-Postmaster, The Official Organ of the National Federation of Sub-Postmasters'; 'The Journal, The Official Journal of the Post Office Engineering Union'; and 'The Post Office Electrical Engineers' Journal'.

Other publications range from the specific, such as 'The Rowland Hill Fund Handbook', to the broader ranging, such as the numerous Civil Service newspapers and journals. These ran from 1890 to 1977 (although most stop at 1969, the year the Post Office ceased to be a Government Department) and include titles such as 'Red Tape' and 'The Quill'. Considering the following Civil Service journal should help the prospective reader avoid possible confusion: POST 115/1-38 is 'The Civilian', a Civil Service newspaper that ran from 1894-1928, which changed its name to 'The New Civilian' in 1926. There are a number of publications in this class where a slight name change has occurred. In each instance, the individual catalogue description alerts the reader to this. Additionally, the series description for 'The Civilian/The New Civilian' (immediately preceding POST 115/1 in the catalogue) states that volumes 51-113 are held in the archive. Beneath this, [in square brackets] it states that there are 38 volumes. The volume number in square brackets always refers to the number of bound volumes of material in the archive, the description 'Vols 51-113' above this refers to the original, contemporary volume numbers that this publication was serialised under.

Not available.

The first Post Office packet station was established in the 16th century at Holyhead for the transport of mails to Dublin. Packet boats from Holyhead were soon supplemented by services from Milford Haven to Waterford and Portpatrick in Scotland to Donaghadee. Regular Irish services were established in the 17th and 18th centuries. By the end of the 19th century regular packet services between the mainland and many of the islands around Britain were in operation.

Although the Post Office owned some of the vessels, until the early 19th century the normal practice was to contract for the supply, maintenance and operation of packet boats, paying an allowance to the owner, often the captain, for their hire. The Post Office determined the schedules and rules for handling the mails. Owners made profits from carrying passengers, bullion and freight. The Post Office did not pay for loss or injury to vessels caused by storms but did compensate owners for damage inflicted by enemies of state during times of war and often had to pay ransom money for the return of boats seized by privateers or foreign foes.

In the early 19th century developments in industrialisation led to successful application of steam power to ships. In 1818 a private company, Holmes and Co, established steamboats between Holyhead and Dublin. As a result, the number of passengers on government packets decreased drastically. The Post Office decided to take action in response to protests by packet owners and to stop the illegal transmission of mails by the steam boats. Rather than use the Holyhead company's boats, the Post Office decided to build its own steam packets and the first two, Lightning and Meteor, were placed on the Holyhead station in 1821. Further Post Office steam boats were introduced at Dover in 1822, Milford Haven in 1824, Portpatrick in 1825, Liverpool in 1826 (packet station established there in that year for conveyance of mails to Dublin) and Weymouth in 1827. In 1836 the Post Office had 26 steam packets in operation.

The steam packets were very expensive to build and operate and nearly always made a financial loss, particularly the services from Holyhead and Milford Haven in the 1830s. In 1790 the entire packet fleet had been placed under the supervision of an Inspector of Packets, following severe criticism of their high cost by a government inquiry of 1788. However, by the early 19th century the office was not equipped to manage the expanding fleet. Inefficiency and poor management of both sail and steam packets, was largely due to the Post Office's lack of expertise in maritime affairs.

Post Office awareness of this failing was demonstrated in 1823 when 30 packets at Falmouth were taken over by the Admiralty. The carrying out of repairs to all packet boats at one central workshop in Holyhead was particularly uneconomical. Competition for passengers from private steam boat companies on the Irish routes, particularly from the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company on the Liverpool to Dublin route, turned initial profits into sustained losses. The Post Office soon realised that a system of private contracts may have been preferable to building and owning its own steam boats. Following three critical government inquiries, 1830-1836, an Act of Parliament turned over all packet operations to the Admiralty from 1 Jan 1837, although the Post Office still controlled the schedules.

The Admiralty, which at first intended to carry on the mail service in its own vessels preferred by the end of the 1830s to grant mail contracts to companies that could build large vessels and maintain adequate fleets. The Liverpool to Dublin route was the first to be put out to tender and was run by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company from 1839. Although the Admiralty increasingly entered into contracts with private steam companies for mail services to Ireland, and the Scotch and English islands, government steam packets continued to sail during the 1840s. The Holyhead to Dublin service was not put out to tender until 1849. In 1850 a ten year contract was signed with the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. In 1848 and 1849 services between Liverpool and Dublin, Milford Haven and Waterford and Portpatrick and Donaghadee were discontinued. Government packets had disappeared by the end of the 1850s and the policy of relying entirely upon the mercantile marine had been established.

In 1860 control of the packet services was returned to the Post Office and every endeavour was made to lower the high cost of the services run by various steamship companies. The struggle continued until the end of the century when the Post Office began using the services of commercial steamship companies for the conveyance of mails.

POID was founded in 1793, when the Postmaster General accepted some responsibility for the detection of domestic crime. The first records mention that an Anthony Parkin, private solicitor, acted regularly on behalf of the Postmaster General detecting offences committed by clerks, sorters and letter carriers, who had committed crimes such as taking bank notes and bills of exchange out of letters or other fraudulent practices.

The Post Office investigation work remained the responsibility of the Solicitor until 1816, when it was transferred to the Secretary's Office. It was later to be called 'The Missing Letter Branch'. As early as 1823, the Post Office investigators were seconded by chimney-hatted Bow Street Runners. Shortly after 1829, when the Police force was founded by Sir Robert Peel, Metropolitan Police officers were seconded to Post Office detective work and remained so until 1976. In 1848, an office was especially created for investigations duties. Investigations became the role of the Post Office Inspector General who could call on the assistance of a clerk in the Inland Office. The Missing Letter Branch continued to operate but, as before, its duties were restricted to missing letters only. Ten years later, in 1858, the post of Inspector General was abolished and the Missing Letter Branch was reorganised as well as strengthened by four Travelling Officers in charge of investigations seconded by two Police Constables acting as Assistants. By 1861, there were five officers who were given permanent status. In 1869, the Missing Letter Branch underwent another reorganisation and the department was put under the principal Travelling Officer - who became Clerk for Missing Letter Business - and made a distinct unit of the Secretary's Office.

In 1883, the Missing Letter Branch was renamed 'the Confidential Enquiry Branch' and the officer in charge given the title of 'Director'. By 1901, the duties of the Confidential Enquiry Branch were restricted to 'enquiries' only and any other duties were transferred to other branches of the Secretary's office; the staff comprised then solely of the Travelling Officers, managed by their Director. In 1908 the unit once again changed its name to 'the Investigation Branch'. The Secretary's office ceased to exist and the post of Secretary was replaced by that of 'Director General'. In 1934, the Post Office underwent a radical reorganisation which eventually affected the Investigation Branch in 1935. The Secretary thus became one of the administrative departments of the new Headquarters structure. In 1946, the name of the head of the Investigation Bureau changed from Director to 'Controller'. In 1967 the Investigation Bureau became known as 'Investigation Division' or 'Post Office Investigation Department' dealing with the investigation of Post Office crime and in particular theft from mail, by the deployment of civilian detectives with the full knowledge and approval of Parliament, the Home Office and the Courts.

The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (i.e. numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service and overseas mail (Pkt reference files held in POST 29), those concerned with England and Wales (E or Eng reference files held in POST 30), Ireland (Ire or I reference files held in POST 31) and Scotland (Scot or S reference files held in POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 & POST 40).

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series referenced M or Min (held in POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing (DF) system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949.

In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973. Files from this period either have a 'P' reference or an alphanumeric reference to indicate which department created them, i.e. MD (Mails Division).

The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (i.e. numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 and POST 40)

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.

William Ryland was appointed Chief Executive and one of two Deputy Chairmen of the new Post Office Corporation on its creation on 1 October 1969, the other Deputy Chairman being Whitney Willard Straight who remained as Deputy Chairman until 1974. Prior to this, from 1967 to 1969, Ryland had been the Managing Director of Telecommunications. The first Chairman of the Corporation was William Hall, 2nd Viscount Hall, who retained the position from 10 October 1969 until standing down in 1970. At this point, Ryland assumed the role of Acting Chairman before being confirmed as Chairman in 1971. He remained Chairman of the Post Office Corporation until 1977, at which point he was succeeded by Sir William Barlow. During his time as Chairman, Ryland also held the role of Chief Executive in addition to other titles.

Ryland assumed these posts at a particularly crucial and difficult time for the new Corporation. His period in office saw several major initiatives designed to reinvigorate the Post Office, such as attempts to introduce greater levels of mechanisation into the postal service. In 1974, the then government requested the production of a wide-ranging report into the possibilities of rationalising postal services and this led to a Select Committee on Nationalised Industries enquiry into the letter post in 1975. Ryland also oversaw the introduction of several new ancillary services, such as Expresspost, and an attempt to achieve a measure of industrial democracy. Perhaps the most significant event of his Chairmanship, though, was the national postal strike of 1971 when, for several weeks, virtually the entire postal service in Great Britain was closed down. Although the strike ended in a partial victory for the Post Office Corporation, Ryland realised that the Corporation would have to modernise to compete in the late twentieth Century. He thus oversaw moves to improve and increase mechanisation within the Post Office and the beginnings of a restructuring programme which would eventually see the privatisation of the telecommunications business.

During his tenure as Chief Executive and Chairman, Ryland made several appearances on television and radio. He was frequently interviewed on news and current affairs programmes, giving In 1970, for instance, an hour long interview in the form of a question and answer session with members of the public on the BBC Radio Four programme It's Your Line. Other media appearances included an interview on BBC Radio Two's Jimmy Young Show in December 1976 and various interviews on news magazine programmes such as Nationwide. Ryland also undertook numerous speaking engagements to organisations as diverse as the Cambridge University Management Group and the Mail Users' Association.

William Ryland was knighted for his services to the Post Office in January 1973.

Inland mails organisation: the Inland Office and the Circulation Department

A separate domestic postal service originated early in the 17th century when a split developed from the foreign service. By the 1670s the General Letter Office in London comprised an Inland Office, with 43 staff, and a Foreign Office, with only four staff. By the end of the decade they were both housed in Lombard Street, as two distinct services with separate staff, although there was a considerable overlapping of work. By the end of the century the staff of the Inland Office greatly increased and the department brought in two-thirds of the GPO's profits. (The staff of the Foreign Office increased to a lesser extent). The Inland Office was managed by a Comptroller and Accomptant and staffed by cashiers, clerks of the roads, an alphabet man, window men, sorters and letter carriers and receivers. By the middle of the 18th century the Inland Office also had a Deputy Comptroller and the outdoor service accounted for most of the staff.

In the early 19th century three overlapping services existed; the Inland Office, Foreign Office and Twopenny Post Office, each with separate staffs. The Inland Office had general charge of the whole postal system for the British Isles, including the mail coaches to and from London. Its staff consisted of a Superintending President, presidents, vice presidents, clerks of the roads, sorters and letter carriers for London. The Foreign Office dealt with mails going to and coming from foreign countries. There was a separate Ship Letter Office and Dead Letter Office. The Bye and Cross Road Letter Office had been absorbed into the Inland Office by this time, (see below).

In 1829 a new central office opened in St Martin's le Grand, to house the General or Inland Office, Foreign Office and Twopenny Post Office. All had distinct letter carriers and their own receiving houses. Foreign Office letter carriers were abolished in the early 1830s. In 1844 the Twopenny Post Office was renamed the London District Post Office.

In the mid-19th century there occurred a gradual amalgamation of all divisions connected with circulation of mail. On 6 April 1840 the Foreign Office was consolidated with the Inland Office and in July 1849 the Ship Letter staff were placed on the Inland Office establishment. By 1850 the Inland Office and London District Post Office were the two departments directly engaged in mail circulation - collecting, sorting, delivering and charging the letters and newspapers in London and its immediate neighbourhood, and in despatching mail to all quarters. The Inland Office was charged with the despatch of mails from London to the provinces or to foreign parts and with the delivery in London of letters received from the country or from abroad. The London District Office was charged with similar duties in respect of the correspondence carried on within London itself and a district around it of 24 miles in diameter, and, sometimes, with the delivery of letters from the Inland Office. This arrangement and duplication of duties meant there was a wastage of manpower. In 1854 proposals were put forward to unite them under one superintendent and consolidate the Dead Letter Office within them. The establishment of the Circulation Department was authorised by the Postmaster General in October 1854. The Circulation Department was managed by a Controller, assisted by a vice controller, and a number of deputies. Below them was a body of clerks and then the sorters and letter carriers. Arrangements for the operation of the new Circulation Department gradually came into force over the next few years.

By 1870 the Circulation Department comprised various branches including the Surveyor and Controllers Office, the Inland, Newspaper, TPO, Foreign and Registered Letter branches, East Central Office and Lombard Street branch.

Bye and Cross Roads Office

In 1660 there were 6 main post roads - North Road to Edinburgh; West Road to Plymouth; Chester or Holyhead Road, Roads to Bristol, Dover and Norwich. Other places were served by branch posts working out of the main roads. Letters between intermediate towns on the main roads were carried by bye-posts. There were no cross posts connecting places on different main roads; the post had to pass through London which caused much delay. By the end of the 17th century a number of cross posts, which did not pass through London, had been established, beginning with a direct post between Bristol and Exeter. The Act of 1711 legalised the cross posts.

In 1720 Ralph Allen was given the contract to farm the Bye and Cross Road posts. He continued in that role for 44 years, until his death, making many important reforms and improvements in the conveyance of letters. Under Ralph Allen the Bye and Cross Road Letter Office was a completely separate part of the postal service. When he died in 1764 it came under the management of the GPO and the Postmasters General. It was governed by a Comptroller, Philip Allan (Ralph Allan's nephew), appointed in 1764. The Office was transferred from Bath to London and housed separately from the Inland Office as a fourth distinctive branch of the GPO - beside the Inland, Foreign and Penny Post offices. Philip Allan managed the Office until his death in the early 1780s when John Staunton took over. The Bye and Cross Road Letter Office became known as the Bye Letter Office by 1788 and remained a separate department for some time until it became essentially a branch of the Inland Office towards the end of the 18th century. By then its distinctiveness had largely ceased, as the network of routes made the difference between a country letter and a by letter and a cross road letter largely meaningless. The office of Comptroller was also abolished toward the end of the century.

London Penny Post, Twopenny Post and London District Post

In 1680 William Dockwra, a London merchant, set up a London Penny Post. It was stopped by the Duke of York in the Courts for infringement of State monopoly and taken over by the Postmaster General in 1682, administered separately from the 'General Post'. This official penny post was also known as the London District Post. The Act of 1711 legalised the London Penny Post. An Act of 1801 abolished the London Penny Post, after an existence of 120 years, and replaced it by what became known as the Twopenny Post (still relating to London and its environs only). In 1805 the limits of the Twopenny Post were restricted to the General Post delivery and letters crossing these bounds became a Threepenny Post. (In 1839 it became a penny post again). In 1844 the Twopenny Post Office became officially known as the London District Post Office. This was amalgamated with the Inland Office and Dead Letter Office in 1854, to form the Circulation Department.

Dead and Returned Letters

The Dead Letter Office was established in London in 1784 to deal with dead and missent letters, when the addressee could not be found. Similar offices in Edinburgh and Dublin opened shortly after. Each was headed by an Inspector. In 1813 a Returned Letter Office was organised to return undelivered letters to writers and collect the postage due. Prior to 1813 the only letters returned were those supposed to contain money or items important enough to escape destruction. During the 19th century the department for dealing with undelivered and returned letters was variously named the Dead Letter Office, Dead and Returned Letter Office and Returned Letter Office. The latter title became gradually more favoured as it prevented any confusion by the public with dead persons and sounded less gruesome. In 1854 it became a branch of the newly formed Circulation Department. By the early 20th century the work of headquarters offices was devolved to separate Returned Letter Offices set up in major towns in Britain.

Mid-19th century revision of rural posts in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland

Although the French had set up the 'poste rurale' in the 1830s, until the mid-19th century the British Post Office was cautious in setting up deliveries in rural districts, only doing so when more than 100 letters a week were received in the village. A major expansion of rural posts throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland took place during the 1850s, under the auspices of Rowland Hill. Appointed secretary to the Postmaster General in 1846 and sole Secretary in 1854, Hill favoured the extension of deliveries to rural districts partly as a means of boosting the gross revenue. Surveyors were already setting up new postal deliveries where conditions justified. Under the revision plan some 700 new posts were set up by 1850, for delivering over 7,500,000 letters a year. A general revision that was begun in 1851 was pretty well complete by 1858. Many revisions of the 1850s included the introduction or enlargement of the free delivery boundary in rural post districts. By 1859 about 93% of mails were delivered free of charge by letter carriers to the houses of the addressees.

One of the most active and enthusiastic workers for these extensions was Surveyor Anthony Trollope, who wanted deliveries where most people were found in a rural district, not where the most influential people lived, and worked to do away with the rural letter carrier's practice of charging for letters delivered. Trollope surveyed of much of Ireland and all of south western England including the Channel Islands. Reports by Trollope can be found in case files POST 14/35, 40, 209, 213, 217, 218, 220 and 221.

The three series on rural revisions in POST 14 provide a detailed record of those changes, covering the establishment, expansion, alteration, preclusion and cessation of postal services and facilities. They also form a comprehensive guide to the rural posts existing in the mid-19th century, including collections, deliveries, routes, sub-offices, receiving houses, posting boxes, sorting offices, letter carriers, letter receivers, sub postmasters, modes of conveyance, facilities, equipment, salaries and allowances.

Rural posts were organised in rural districts under town post offices classified as 'post towns'. All rural routes were served by the post town and its branch or sub-offices. Each town post office, managed by a deputy postmaster, belonged to a national District. Each District was administered by a District Surveyor who reported to the Secretary. The Secretary reported to the Postmaster General. This administrative structure is reflected in the three series on rural post revision.

There were two types of revision: a 'general' revision of the rural posts under one town; or minor alterations to a rural post, often initiated by a petition from the local inhabitants. Decisions were, in practice, mainly made by the Secretary, who submitted them to the Postmaster General for formal sanction. Proposals were normally only rejected if the volume of letters was insufficient to warrant the resources, the Post Office favoured an alternative reform, a minority of local inhabitants desired the alteration, or a guarantee bond was not provided.

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History of Postal Drafts

With the passing of the National Insurance Act 1911, Approved Societies acting as agents of the Ministry of Health for the paying of National Insurance benefits approached the Post Office for a means of sending small remittances through the post, postal and money orders being unsuitable. An Interdepartmental Committee, including representatives of the Post Office and the National Health Insurance Joint Committee, was appointed by the Treasury in June 1913 to consider the matter and the postal draft was the outcome of the Committee's recommendations. The service was introduced at the end of 1914 with the approval of the Treasury and without specific statutory authority. Very few Approved Societies in fact made use of the system, preferring to pay benefits in person.

During the First World War the use of postal drafts was extended, by Treasury authority, to various Government departments and some quasi-Government departments, including departments established in the United Kingdom by Colonial Governments. The War Office and Admiralty were amongst the first departments granted permission to use the system for the payment of pensions and reserve pay. Postal drafts were a more economical method of sending remittances through the post and Government departments were encouraged to use them in place of money orders.

In 1934 a Postal Draft Committee report recommended extension of the system, by statute, to Friendly Societies, Trades Unions, Local Authorities, Public Utility Corporations, charitable organisations of a permanent character and other similar bodies. Nothing emerged from those recommendations and the majority of non-Governmental applicants were denied access to the system by the Post Office, which cited practical difficulties and lack of statutory authority. No definite policy for granting or refusing permission to utilise the system was ever established.

The system of postal drafts ceased in 1969 with the introduction of Girobank services.

The postal draft system

The postal draft was a form of cheque for small sums drawn on the Postmaster General. It provided for the payment of money which had to be remitted by post. Printed forms of drafts were supplied by the Post Office to issuing authorities - Approved Societies or Government

departments - which entered amounts and transmitted them to payees. Most forms were printed on watermarked paper and further protected by a colour band. The maximum amount payable was printed on the draft. Drafts could be cashed at any Post Office in Great Britain, Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic or at a specified post office. For the payment of sums over £10 evidence of identity was normally required from the payee. Paid drafts were returned to the issuing authority by the GPO and the account rendered. Advances to cover estimated payments were sent by issuing authorities to GPO Headquarters.

The first ever main line railway came into operation between Stockton and Darlington in 1825. The first conveyance of mail by railway took place on 11 November 1830, on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, less than two months after the opening of this second main line (see POST 11/52). The Post Office soon realised the potential for major improvements in mail distribution offered by this new form of transport. The first experimental Travelling Post Office, then known as 'the railway post office', ran between Birmingham and Warrington in January 1838 on the Grand Junction Railway. It consisted of a horse box converted into a primitive sorting carriage, coupled to a train. The experiment proved that mail sorting could be carried out efficiently on board trains, saving both time and money. In April 1838 a regular service started on the newly opened London and Birmingham Railway, with purpose built sorting carriages. By the end of the year through services had been established between London and Preston. Thereafter the TPO network grew rapidly, accelerated by introduction of the Penny Post in 1840, proliferation of new rail routes and railway companies in the 1840s, the increased volume of mail in circulation and general economic expansion. Railway mail services quickly swallowed up the role of the mail coaches. Previously, some sorting of mail was done by mail coach staff and postmasters at coaching inns. However, TPOs enabled large quantities of mail to be sorted and processed on the move.

Despite the rapid expansion of TPOs, the department in charge was known as the Mail Coach Office until 1854. The 1850s and 1860s saw further expansion and by 1867 the TPOs had their own Department at GPO Headquarters in London, headed by a Surveyor of Travelling Post Offices. Overall management of railway services resided in the Inspector General of Mails. Control of TPOs remained based in London which was the focal point of much postal traffic. In 1882 the London Postal Service was created. The post of Chief Superintendent, TPO Section, was established one year later. During the 19th century the Post Office developed an intricate and comprehensive network of Day and Night services covering England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The Act to Provide for the Conveyance of Mails by Railways, 1838, allowed the Postmaster General to compel railway companies, for reasonable remuneration, to carry mails by ordinary or special trains, at such hours as the Postmaster General might direct, together with mail guards and other officers of the Post Office. Companies could also be required to provide carriages fitted up for sorting letters en route. This Act provided the foundation for all future arrangements with private railway companies and British Rail for carrying mails by rail. The first railway mail services were normally carriages attached to passenger services, which provided accommodation for sorting and / or conveying mails. By the mid-1860s a number of special trains run purely for postal requirements with very little or no passenger accommodation, were in operation as part of mail carrying contracts agreed between railway companies and the Post Office. In 1885 special mails, exclusively for Post Office use, were introduced between London Euston and Aberdeen. Known as the Up Special TPO and Down Special, they constituted a major reorganisation of the West Coast route, greatly accelerated TPO services to Scotland and formed the biggest and busiest of the TPOs.

In the years leading up to World War One there were over 130 TPOs in operation throughout the United Kingdom, ranging from the large and prestigious London based services, such as the North Western TPO and Great Western TPO, to small local links, such as the Grimsby and Lincoln Sorting Tender and Brighton and Hastings Sorting Carriage (see POST 18/11-12). After the First World War, 1914-1918, many TPOs and Sorting Carriages which had ceased operating during conflict were not restored (see POST 18/38 for comparison of 1914 and 1922 service lists). Day TPOs and parcel sorting on TPOs were particularly reduced. The slow economic recovery during the 1920s delayed substantial re-investment in TPO rolling stock until the 1930s. During the Second World War all letter sorting on trains ceased and only a few key bag tenders ran. Parcel sorting and day-time TPOs were radically reduced after the War, mainly because the number and frequency of collections and deliveries had been reduced by concentration of processing services. A phased reinstatement began in 1945, but only about 46 services were restored. In 1948 the railways were nationalised and the British Transport Commission, (replaced by the British Railways Board in 1962), took over the TPO contract with Post Office. There was little change to the system from 1950 until 1968, when the Two-Tier letter service was introduced and TPOs began to carry and sort only First Class mails for next day delivery. The resultant drop in overnight business led to the disappearance of some services during the 1970s, including the Plymouth-Bristol and Crewe-Bangor TPOs. The overall size and shape of the network remained largely unchanged until the mid-1980s. Concentration and mechanisation of letter mail handling in addition to faster British Rail services and greater use of road and air facilities, led to a review of East Coast services in 1985, and in 1988 the first major revision since the Second World War occurred. A new timetable was issued for a system of 37 TPOs, some services were combined, others extended and new ones added including services such as the Manchester-Dover TPO, which by-passed London (see POST 18/68). Further large scale revisions and alterations took place in the 1990s to fit in with Royal Mail policies (see POST 18/66-67). By 1994 there was a limited provision of 24 TPOs. However, these were larger and faster trains, operating only at night and using specialised railway rolling stock.

The Receiver General was an independent appointment, designed to remove all responsibilities for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General. There was, however, another major financial position in the Post Office, the Accountant General, who was appointed by the Postmaster General to keep an account of all revenue. This produced duplication of records. The Receiver General took receipt of all money paid into the Department, and paid costs directly from these funds.

The sources of income are mainly payments received from inland letters; window money (postage due on letters handed in by the public to the clerk behind the window of a post office); postmasters; letter receivers; returned letters; charges levied on incoming foreign letters. Expenditure includes payments for salaries of postmasters, letter carriers, sorters, window men, clerks of the roads and of the inland and foreign offices, inspectors, watchmen and other employees; ship letters; returned letters; accommodation, furnishings and equipment; travelling expenses; allowances and pensions; local taxes; contractors and tradesmen; building, hire, wear and tear of packet ships; captains fees. The balance of cash was transferred to the Exchequer.

The Post Office (London) Railway was opened for traffic in December 1927. The Post Office first showed an interest in using underground railways to transport mail beneath London in 1854 and in 1893 serious consideration was given to running an electric railway in the pneumatic tunnels. By the turn of the twentieth century, traffic congestion in London had reached the point that cross-London journeys by road took so long that an unnecessary number of vehicles had to be used to carry the ever growing volume of mails between sorting offices and main line termini. In 1905, the Metropolitan Pneumatic Despatch Co presented a bill to Parliament for the construction of a pneumatic line connecting the major railway termini and Post Offices. The Bill was rejected as being too ambitious. In September 1909 the Postmaster General appointed a Committee to examine the practicality of the transmission of mails in London by pneumatic tube or electric railway. The Committee reported in February 1911 in favour of an electric railway between Paddington Station (Great Western Railway) and the Eastern District Post Office in Whitechapel Road, a distance of six and a half miles.

The scheme was submitted by the Postmaster General to the Cabinet in 1912 and power to construct the railway was given to the Postmaster General by the Post Office (London) Railway Act, 1913. The Act made provision for compensation for damage and allowed the Post Office a budget of £1,100,000 to construct the line with stations at Paddington, Western District Office, Western Parcel Office, West Central District Office, Mount Pleasant Sorting Office, King Edward Building, Liverpool Street and East District Office. Tenders for the construction of the tunnel were invited on the 26 August 1914. John Mowland and Co. won the tender to construct the tunnels and build eight stations. The work, although interrupted by the war, was completed in 1917. In parallel with the building work, Post Office engineers built a test track on Plumstead Marshes to experiment with the control systems and rolling stock. However, the war caused the testing to be brought to a premature halt. During the war the stations became a home for exhibits from museums. The cessation of the war enabled the Post Office to proceed with their plans, and in 1919 tenders were issued for the supply and installation of the electrical equipment. Prices proved too expensive for the post war budget and the scheme was held in abeyance until 1923 when tenders were reissued.

In May 1927, work was sufficiently advanced for half the system to be handed over for staff training and in December of that year the scheme received Parliamentary approval and the line became fully operational with parcels traffic running between Mount Pleasant and Paddington. Mount Pleasant to Liverpool Street opened for Christmas parcels from 19-24 December and then for a full parcels service from 28 December. Liverpool Street to Eastern District Office opened for parcels on 2 January 1928. Letter traffic began on 13 February with the opening of West Central District Office station, followed by Western District Office on 12 March. The line proved an immense benefit to the Post Office in the first year of operation, however the high mileage gave the Post Office problems as the cars needed a lot of maintenance. In the early 1930s the rolling stock underwent a gradual change as the cars were replaced by three car trains. These trains were replaced by 34 new trains in 1981 in a £1 million development programme.

In a Press Release, issued by the Post Office PR team on 7 November 2002, Royal Mail announced that unless it could find a new backer, that the Post Office underground railway would close in the near future. The working operation finally ceased on 30 May 2003, but the system has in fact been 'mothballed' in the hope that an alternative use can be found for it.

The majority of maps in the collection were produced as part of an administrative exercise on the part of the Post Office to establish the boundaries for free mail deliveries after the increase of mail circulation in the nineteenth century (see particularly 'Town Maps: England and Wales and 'Town Maps: Ireland').

The Irish town maps were created during the period 1830-1860. This was a time of change in the Irish postal system, as it was amalgamated with Britain's postal service in 1831. In 1843 the British government laid down the principle: 'All places the letters for which exceed one hundred per week should be entitled to a receiving office and a free delivery of letters.' The boundary of free delivery for individual areas within Ireland was decided by the Postmaster General in consultation with Augustus Godby, Secretary to the Irish Post Office. A set of maps was created to show the boundaries decided for the various towns which qualified for free delivery.

This exercise coincided with the survey of Ireland carried out by Ordnance Survey Ireland between 1829 and 1842; consequently, the majority of these maps consist of annotated sections of Ordnance Survey maps.

Some of the maps in POST 21 were produced as part of official government enquiries into Post Office administration; for example there are maps produced as part of or as a result of: 2nd Report of Committee on postage, 1838 (POST 21/142, POST 21/152, POST 21/156); 20th Report of Commissioners of Revenue Enquiry, February 1830 (POST 21/153); 21st Report of Commissioners of Revenue Enquiry, March 1830 (POST 21/53, POST 21/56 and POST 21/57); Fifth Report from Select Committee on the roads from Holyhead to London, July 1817(POST 21/217), Report of Commissioners on the Post Office, 1838 (POST 21/761).

The increase of mail coach transportation in the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries necessitated the production of good maps showing postal roads, distances between coach stops and places of interest along the way. There are several such maps in POST 21, including: 'Bowles' Road Directory through England and Wales (1796) (POST 21/159), 'Cary's 6 sheet map of England and Wales with part of Scotland' (1830) (POST 21/770) and 'General map of the Roads of England and Wales engraved for Moggs' improved edition of Paterson's Roads' (1829) (POST 21/173).

Several of the maps in the collection were officially commissioned by the Post Office; of particular note are the GPO (General Post Office) Circulation maps of England and Wales, Ireland and Scotland produced by the cartographer, Edward Stanford; these show the routes and manner of transportation of the mail across the countries. Other examples are the various maps produced by John Cary, who was commissioned by the Postmaster General to organise the survey of turnpike roads in Great Britain, a task involving nine thousand miles of survey. The maps resulting from this work were included in his 'New Itinerary,' first published in 1798; the work was dedicated to the Postmasters General and provided the official measures for all mail coach routes and for the postage due on letters, which until 1840 were charged by distance carried.

After the establishment of Uniform Penny Post in 1840, followed a few months later by the introduction of the prepaid postage stamp, the Penny Black, there was a huge increase in the amount of mail sent. In 1839 there were 76 million letters posted in the United Kingdom; in 1840 after the introduction of the Penny Post there were 168 million. The mail service was opened up more to the general public, particularly after the introduction of pillar boxes to mainland Britain in 1855. These developments necessitated the increasing production of post office directories which included maps showing the location of the numerous district post offices and subsidiary sorting houses; there are several 'Kelly's Post Office Directory' maps of London in the collection.

Post Office Limited (named Post Office Counters Ltd 1987-2001) was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail Group plc on 1st September 1987. It inherited functions and services from Royal Mail relating to the management of post office branches in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales and the provision of financial, information and other relevant services through this network.

Thomas Witherings opened the first post office, where members of the public could take mail for posting and collect mail sent to them, in October 1635 in Bishopsgate Street, London. He was acting under a proclamation from King Charles I 'for the settling of the letter office of England and Scotland', authorising him to open the royal domestic mail service to the public to generate revenue for the King. Witherings lost control of the service in 1637, leading to a spirited struggle by several claimants for the right to manage the monopoly (see Robinson, Britain's Post Office, Ch.3). This ended in 1653 when the Government farmed out services to the highest bidder, and the Post Office Acts 1657 and 1660 fixed rates for sending letters and established the legal foundation of the service for the first time. The duties and remuneration of postmasters were confirmed in the Post Office Act 1660, which designated responsibility for postmasters staged throughout England and Scotland to accept and hand-over letters, and provide fresh horses for post-boys on payment of a set fee.

The network of post office branches expanded considerably during the 18th century. Post offices were known as Letter Receiving Houses and were usually housed at inns and run by the innkeeper acting as the postmaster. Postmasters were self-employed and received payments according to the quantity of mail handled. The system was centrally administered through an Inland Office based in Lombard Street, London.

In 1715 six 'Surveyors' were appointed by the Postmaster General to manage postal operations outside of London, and in 1720 Ralph Allen established a business under contract to the Postmaster General to manage and develop the postal network for letters not passing through the London office. Allen managed this until his death in 1764, at which point his business became part of the Inland Office department and was transferred from Bath to London.

In 1854, as services expanded and the need for greater facilities at post office branches increased, the first post offices owned and run by Royal Mail (then named the General Post Office) were opened. These were called crown offices, as opposed to sub-offices run by agents (sub-postmasters). Crown offices were managed by paid employees of the General Post Office and administered with sub-offices through the Inland Office Department (renamed the Circulation Department from 1854-1934). A system of salaried and scale-payment sub-offices, head post offices and regional branch offices was established to provide a range of facilities managed through a network of head postmasters, postmasters and sub-postmasters.

In 1934 the system of district Surveyors and central administration of post office branches through the Circulation Department was replaced by eight regional divisions with devolved powers and a central headquarters function. Crown and sub-post offices were now managed through a series of general postal regions, though paid postmaster and head postmaster in each region still managed all functions (collecting, processing and delivery of mail as well as counter operations).

A 'Counters Services' department was first established in Postal Headquarters in 1981. In 1986 postal operations were organised into three separate businesses - Royal Mail Letters, Royal Mail Parcels and Post Office Counters (in addition to National Girobank which remained a separate business unit until it was sold to the Alliance and Leicester Building Society in 1990). In the Post Office Counters division, 32 district offices reported to four headquarters units: the "territories". Counters managers, each responsible for five to ten main post office branches and a number of sub-offices, supported each district manager. Sub-post offices and sub-postmasters, who were contractors to Royal Mail, were unaffected by this reorganisation.

In 1987 Post Office Counters became a limited company - Post Office Counters Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Mail but with separate audited accounts. This was reorganised in 1993 with seven regions replacing 30 districts and three territories, and three business centres focusing on particular markets: financial, branded and agency development. In 1998 the strategic, policy and administrative functions of Royal Mail were reorganised further with the establishment of 17 different business units operating across all three businesses (counters, mail and parcels). Counter operations and services were focused in four main functions: Post Office Network, Network Banking, Cash Handling and Distribution and Customer Management (Government Unit).

Post Office Ltd was established on 1st October 2001, under new powers granted to Royal Mail by the Post Office Act 2001. Post Office Ltd absorbed Post Office Network, Network Banking, Cash Handling and Distribution, Customer Management (Government Unit) business units in Royal Mail and all of their functions, in addition to the brands, network and functions of Post Office Counters Ltd. Post Office Ltd remains an integral part of Royal Mail Group plc, but stands alone financially and is profit-accountable in its own right. It now contains seven administrative divisions, including Service Delivery, Customer Services and Strategic Alliances responsible respectively for Post Office branches, sales and marketing and key commercial services.

The history of the Inland Letter Post is an important part of the history of modern communications. Since 1635, the General Post Office and its successors has been the progenitor of a number of techniques, organisational innovations and methods of communications distribution that have, in the course of time, been adopted the world over. The development of a modern Inland Letter Post system capable of delivering approximately 30 billion items per annum in Britain has clearly experienced an enormous amount of change over this extremely long period of time. It has been strengthened by centuries of growth, a sustained increase in organisational sophistication and a number of sweeping transformations, such as the introduction of the national Penny Post in the nineteenth century or of postcodes in the twentieth century. In the following passage of writing some of the key developments of the Letter Post service, that form the historical context for the records found within POST 23, will be sketched.

In July 1635, by a Royal Proclamation of Charles I, a new revenue-producing plan to offset the cost of maintaining the Royal Posts was implemented (the Royal Posts date back to the reign of King Henry VIII and were made up of the King's personal messengers, conveying letters on behalf of the court and nobility). For the first time, this allowed the public to use the Royal Posts in return for fixed rates of postage. These rates were based upon the number of sheets of paper making up any given letter, and on the distance it was carried. Posts were carried along the five principal roads of the kingdom, those to Dover, Edinburgh, Holyhead, Plymouth and Bristol, travelling as far as Edinburgh and Dublin, with a number of Post Houses en route to allow collection of letters from intervening towns (see POST 23/1). This service survived the Civil War and was reconfirmed with the 'Charter of The Post Office' in 1660, which established the first London Letter Office. The 'Charter' reinforced the edicts of a 1657 Act of Parliament, which effectively fixed rates for the conveyance of postage across the British Isles. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Crown had secured a state monopoly on the carriage of inland mails and had taken control of the London Penny Post, a public postal service operating within the capital only, for which both those sending and receiving a letter would pay a penny. The establishment of a modest national service was by this time secure and settled and continued to expand at a steady pace.

By the mid eighteenth century, there was a controller of the Inland Office and two clerks for each of the six principal roads that spread from London to the rest of the British Isles. At the Head Office in Lombard Street, there were two Postmaster Generals, a number of other senior figures and approximately 16 sorters, amongst other staff responsible for the daily running of affairs. The outdoor service of the Inland Office was undertaken by nearly 70 letter carriers. In total, the department served over 180 offices nationwide, in addition to the work of the Bye and Cross Road Letter Office, which cared for the local carriage of posts between cross-road towns (See Howard Robinson, 'Britain's Post Office' (OUP, 1953), pp. 68-71). Towards the end of the century, there occurred a wholesale reform of the way letters were carried across Britain, when John Palmer oversaw the introduction of armed mail coaches to replace the boy messengers, from 1785 on. This development meant that the mails could now be carried across Britain faster, more regularly, with more safety and to a far stricter timetable, which in turn led to an expansion of services, revenue and national importance of a burgeoning modern Post Office.

Naturally, the industrial revolution and its attendant technological developments meant that mail coaches would not carry inland mails indefinitely. Travelling Post Offices (TPO), trains that journeyed the length and breadth of Britain carrying staff to sort the mail whilst on the move, began operation in the 1840s and there were over 100 in operation by the end of the nineteenth century. However, the great changes, developments and reforms that unravelled in many spheres of life during the nineteenth century, an ever-growing and increasingly literate populace and the growth of industry and commerce, all contributed to a demand for an inland letter service of ongoing expansion and sophistication. A crucial step in this regard were the reforms to this service that occurred in the 1840s, which are commonly associated with the leading light of British postal history, Sir Rowland Hill (1795-1879).

Hill made a number of proposals for reforming the Post Office, but his major contribution was to change the way people paid for the national letter service, which in turn led to a more affordable service, a substantial growth in postal traffic and therefore to a series of organisational changes. In 1837, he published a pamphlet, 'Post Office Reform: Its Importance and Practicability' (see POST 23/214). Instead of the recipient paying a rate dictated by the mileage involved and the number of sheets of paper in the letter, a system that had become highly criticised, Hill argued for the following. A national rate of one penny, to be pre-paid by the sender by means of an adhesive label (the postage stamp), with charges being made according to weight. This pamphlet was well received. In 1837, a government-appointed select committee looked into the matter and published its final report in March 1839 (see POST 23/202) and it was agreed by Parliament on 12 July of that year. The concept of pre-payment was agreed and new uniform rates were introduced on 10 January 1840, only five weeks after an interim 4d rate had demonstrated its practicality and also due to public pressure. However, it was not until 1897, as part of concessions made for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, that delivery by postmen was extended to every house in the Kingdom. There were changes to the maximum weight that could be posted for one penny in 1871 and 1879 and the national Penny Post kept its eponymous rate right up until 1918 when this charge was finally raised by a half pence (See POST 23/201 for a review of the achievements of the penny post by 1890, written by Rowland Hill's son, Mr. Pearson Hill).

When the national penny post was introduced, the Post Office handled just over 75 million letters per annum. By 1870, this figure had risen to in excess of 860 million and letters remained the dominant means of inland long-distance communication until the telecommunications revolution of the twentieth century (for postal traffic figures see Martin Daunton, 'Royal Mail: The Post Office Since 1840' (London: Athlone Press, 1985), p. 80). The mid-nineteenth century reforms to the way the Post Office went about its business laid the foundations for the way the organisation would administrate the nation's inland letter service well into the twentieth century. However, before concluding with a consideration of the equivalent reforms of this later period, there is one department of the nineteenth century Inland Letter Office that is particularly well represented in POST 23 and therefore worthy of brief comment.

This is the Missing Letter Branch (Sub-Series 3 'Missing Letter Branch Case Papers'). This department conducted investigations into many suspicious cases where inland letters went missing, and was often successful in finding a culprit, usually a sorting clerk or postman. Missing duties were the responsibility of the Solicitor from the first recorded instance in 1793 (see the minute entry Eng321P/1827 in POST 30/21) and in 1816 they were assumed by the Secretary's office (See POST 72). However, in 1839 (when this series begins) the duty became known as the Missing Letter Branch. A number of organisational changes occurred such as the introduction of a Post Office Inspector General in 1848, the replacement of this post ten years later with the detachment to it of four Travelling Officers (investigation officers) and two police constables (assistants) and a number of other travelling officers becoming permanent staff in 1861. In 1883 the Missing Letter Branch was renamed the Confidential Enquiry Branch (CEB), and its head was given the title of Director. These files relate to the period 1839-1859 and contain a wealth of information such as the 500 indexed cases for 1854-1856 that can be found in POST 23/62.

Efforts to revitalise Britain's letter post were redoubled after the Second World War and there were a series of organisational changes to the way the London Postal Region (LPR) was run, with collection and delivery times, circulation objectives and staff working hours coming under the spotlight (See Sub-Series 6 'Post War revision to letter services, London Postal Region'). The major changes that occurred in the post-war period until the 1980s and beyond owed much to technological advancements that, like many sectors of British business and industry, the Post Office Board sought to take full advantage of. The mechanisation of postal sorting gathered pace from 1945 onwards and the automation of many parts of the by now elaborate and very large inland letter system heralded other changes of national importance, such as the introduction of post codes in the early 1960s (See POST 17 in general for issues related to mechanisation and see POST 17 Sub-Series 10 for the introduction of post codes in particular).

One of the landmark developments facilitated by these improvements to the system was the arrival of a two-tier letter service, which was officially introduced on 16 September 1968. The new first class service was charged at 5d and second class letters were charged at 4d. These were liable to deferment in the post and, in general, were delivered about 24 hours later than the equivalent first class service. Long before this service was introduced, letter traffic had been divided into two broad streams with fully paid letters in one stream and printed papers at a lower rate of postage in the other stream in order to ensure prompt delivery of fully paid letters. Late postings had gradually increased over the years, for example, in the Western District Office in London, it increased from 75% in 1956 to 82% in 1967, and so although the new system was sometimes criticised, it was considered to be a necessary adjustment to the way the letter service was run. Reports, memoranda, the proceedings of parliamentary speeches and debates and much else related to the introduction of the two-tier letter service can be found in Sub Series 8 'Two-Tier Inland Letter Service, Correspondence and Reports'.

In 1969, an Act of Parliament made the Post Office a nationalised corporation and the organisation ceased to be a government department for the first time in the modern era. Under the terms of the Act, the organisation was split into two distinct sections: posts and telecommunications. One of the consequences of this legislation was that that the organisation came under increased pressure to remain profitable. With this in mind, marketing plans and long term planning papers were drawn up during the 1970s and 1980s in which the state of the letter system and plans for its future development were discussed, some of which can be found in Sub-Series' 9 and 10. By the early 1980s, the telecommunications side of the business had been separated and was later privatised in 1984, whereas the inland letter service remained under the control of the Post Office. This part of the organisation became separated from counters and parcels under the name 'Royal Mail Letters' in 1986 and reports relating to the establishment of the letters business in this year can be seen in Sub-Series 13, including graphs that show the volumes of inland mail and the relative success/failure at meeting service targets from the 1960s on (POST 23/155 and 199). From 2002, a similar set up remained in place, but with one important difference: Royal Mail (which continued to be a PLC) lost its monopoly for the conveyance of inland letters.

The history of the Post Office monopoly of letter services is very complex and its validity has been a source of political debate throughout the twentieth century. The 1635 proclamation made it unlawful to establish a private post where an official one existed and in 1637 a further proclamation declared a monopoly on carriage of letters between persons within the kingdom. In 1657 an Act established a 'General Post Office' and appointed a 'Postmaster General,' giving him a monopoly on the carriage of letters. Throughout the latter part of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, measures were taken to clarify the application of, and exclusions to, the monopoly, and extend it to other Post Office services. There have been other interesting episodes related to this Post Office monopoly, including an occasion in 1885 when the Postmaster General made an ill-tempered visit to the colleges of Oxford and Cambridge to investigate an independent postal system that had been developed at the universities, producing its own postage stamps, between 1870-1886 (see POST 23/77) and the contentious monopoly continued to be the subject of political debate well into the late twentieth century (see POST 23/142 'The Letter Monopoly: Review, 1979' and Sub-Series 4 'The Post Office Monopoly of Letter Post' for related material). From 1 January 2006, the market was opened up to competition by the postal regulator Postcomm in anticipation of EU rulings concerning postal monopolies. This ended a 350-year period in which the Post Office had maintained this sole right to offer an inland letter service.

Officials of The Post Office acted as the first newsagents in this country after the establishment of the public postal service. Six postal officials entitled 'Clerks of the Road' were privileged to frank gazettes at 2d, a reduced charge from letter post. Under the terms of the Franking Act 1764, newspapers bearing the signature of a Member of Parliament or sent to a member at any place which he advised were to go free. The Newspaper Office was established at the General Post Office in 1782 by John Palmer, following criticisms relating to the treatment of newspapers. With the coming of the French Revolution, the Clerks in the Foreign Office established a large foreign news agency. The Ship Letter Act of 1815 contained an important provision in favour of newspapers, providing the first enactment that allowed newspapers to go out of the United Kingdom at a cheaper rate than letters.

The act of 1764 also authorised Members of Parliament to frank newspapers. Many extended the provisions of the act by allowing free postage to booksellers and newsagents who rapidly took over a considerable part of the distribution of newspapers from the Clerks of the Road. An Act of 1825 legalised the free transmission of newspapers by post. In 1830 news vendors presented a petition to Parliament protesting against Post Office servants being allowed to compete with private dealers, and on 5 April 1834, The Post Office ceased to have a privileged interest in the franking of newspapers.

An act of 1855 abolished the compulsory payment of stamp duty on newspapers. Newspaper proprietors were allowed the option of printing on paper stamped to denote payment of stamp duty and thereby qualifying for free transmission by post or using unstamped paper and paying normal rates of postage, until 1870.

The Post Office Act of 1870 provided that newspapers fulfilling the conditions specified in the act were, after registration by The Post Office, entitled to transmission within the United Kingdom at a rate of ½d irrespective of weight. In 1897 weight restrictions were introduced. A grant of preferential tariff to the press was declared by a Treasury Committee in 1875, enabling The Post Office to transmit press releases and news messages to newspapers and other news institutions at the press tariff rate. By The Post Office (Newspapers Published in British Possessions) Act of 1913, copies of newspapers printed and published in any British possession or protectorate were admitted to the benefit of the inland newspaper rate. The Canadian Magazine Post introduced in 1907

allowed for the transmission of all newspapers registered at the Inland Newspaper rate and in addition publications issued at intervals of not more than 31 days, subject to certain conditions.

Until the late nineteenth century the carriage of parcels was in the hands of 'carters' or carriers, operating on a local basis. With the improvement of the roads in the eighteenth century and the inception of the railway services in the late 1820s, the volume of parcels conveyed by coach and railway increased. By the 1850s railway companies had cornered the bulk of this business. In 1842 Rowland Hill suggested that a parcel service should be operated by the Post Office. However, the government was content to let this business remain in the private sector, for the time being. By the 1860s the population explosion and dramatic expansion of British commerce and industry gradually forced the Post Office to give some thought to parcel post. A plan for the introduction of a parcels post was suggested in the 1860s by Rowland Hill and Frederick Hill, (Rowlands' brother and Assistant in the Postmaster General's Office).

The establishment of the General Postal Union in 1874, (now known as the Universal Postal Union) led to further discussions. In 1880 the union promulgated a convention for the exchange of postal parcels between Germany, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Egypt, Spain, France, Great Britain and Ireland, British India, Italy and Luxembourg. This envisaged the transmission of parcels up to 3 kilograms in weight. A convention was signed at Paris on 3 November 1880, due to come into operation on 1 October 1881. A protocol attached to this convention took note that Great Britain, Ireland and British India were not in a position to sign the convention as they did not have an inland parcels service at that time, and they were accordingly given until 1 April 1882 to bring the convention into effect.

On 11 February 1882, Henry Fawcett, Postmaster General, assisted by Frederick E Baines, Inspector General of mails, and Sir Arthur Blackwood, Secretary to the Post Office, submitted a memorandum analysing the various problems preventing the introduction of an inland Parcel Post service and suggesting ways of overcoming them.

An Act to amend the Post Office Acts with respect to the Conveyance of Parcels (45 and 46 Vict. Ch. 74), was passed by Parliament on 18 August 1882. Twelve of its seventeen sections dealt with matters arising from the negotiations between the Post Office and the railway companies; their remuneration and the services to be rendered by them.

The Inland Parcel Post came into operation on 1 August 1883 and 'letter-carriers' were entitled 'postmen' as a result. From 12 August 1884 the service was known as the Parcels Post. Parcels sent by the Post were limited to 7lbs in weight and the rates of postage ranged from 3d for 1lb to 1s for 7lbs.

In the tenth report of the Commissioners of Post Office Inquiry, January 1838 it was recommended that a uniform fee of 2d should be charged for the registration of letters and that the Post Office should admit liability for their loss up to a maximum of £5. This scheme was to come into force in June 1839. However it was stopped by news of impending reductions in postage rates. A general scheme for the registration of inland letters came into force on 6 January 1841. Registration was applicable to any valuable letter for a prepaid fee of one shilling. There was no compulsion or compensation. By 1854 the fee was payable by stamps and in 1856 letters marked 'registered' and posted in a letter box were charged one shilling.

The principle of 'compulsory registration' was introduced on 1 August 1862 for all letters containing coin and passing through London, at a double registration fee of 18 pence. Compulsory registration was extended throughout the country during 1863. On 1 September 1873 compulsory registration also became applicable to those letters containing jewellery and watches.

The principle of compensation for damage and loss to registered letters was introduced on 1 January 1878 at a sum of two pounds.

The Recorded Delivery Service was introduced in 1961, it provided proof of delivery at a much lower cost than using Registered Post. Recorded Delivery was recommended for sending documents and papers of little or no monetary value, whereas items of value were recommended to be sent by Registered Letter Post.

The Compensation Fee service was introduced in 1972, it was to be used when sending valuable items by parcel post to provide compensation in the event of loss or damage and also to provide a record of posting.

The Special Delivery Service was introduced in the 1980s to provide customers with a service whereby an item could be delivered to a UK address on the next working day; the Datapost service, introduced in 1981 operated in the same area and could guarantee next day delivery to most destinations, providing a record of posting, documented handling en route and moderate compensation in case of loss or damage.

Consequential Loss Insurance was introduced in May 1982, it was designed to insure against the risk of loss-arising from some failure in the postal service-which was over and above the actual value of the article posted; it was provided as an optional extra with the Inland Registered Letter Service.

In the 1990s, a whole range of new services were introduced, including the Swiftair service, which guaranteed next day delivery to international destinations. In addition the Special Delivery/Registered Post portfolios was extended to include: Registered Plus, similar to the Registered Service in that it guaranteed next day delivery, but it offered a higher rate of compensation for damage or loss and the Sameday Delivery service, offering delivery by 6pm on the same day.

Money orders were the first financial service to be supplied by the Post Office, and had their origins in a private business carried on within the department from 1792. A system of 'money letters' was established by six 'Clerks of the Road' with the sanction of the Postmaster General, to give the public the means of safely and economically transmitting small sums of money from any one part of the United Kingdom to any other. The Committee of Revenue Inquiry, which reported on the Post Office in 1829, expressed its disapproval. This profitable system was subsequently taken over by the Postmaster General in 1838, and reductions in poundage, followed by the introduction of the penny post in 1840, led to a rapid increase in traffic from 55,000 orders in 1836 to 1½ million orders in 1841.

The money order system was set up to be confined to areas of the market not covered by commercial banks and geared towards the 'poorer classes' for the transfer of small sums of money. However, most remittances continued to be made by enclosing cash in letters and by the late 1830s attention turned towards a cheap system of registration in order to provide a secure means of delivering cash.

A limited overseas money order service was introduced in 1856 during the Crimean War. This service spread rapidly to many parts of the Empire and, in 1868, the first money order agreement with a foreign country (Switzerland) was signed.

In 1871 a reduction in the poundage rates on inland money orders (under 10s to 1d and under 20s to 2d) led to further considerable increase in the use of such orders. But as the cost of the issue and payment of each order was approximately 3d the money order service was unprofitable as far as the low value orders were concerned, and by 1875 the inland service as a whole was run at a loss. This was despite Rowland Hill's efforts to develop the more profitable traffic in larger sums - the maximum value was increased to £10 in 1862 despite the misgivings of the Treasury which was concerned about creating competition for the banks.

In 1874 George Chetwynd, the Receiver and Accountant General, proposed a cheaper system of postal notes or orders which could be cashed by the bearer on sight, and after meeting concerns voiced by Parliament and an appointed Treasury Committee, the system of postal orders was introduced in 1881. Their usefulness was greatly increased by the permission to make them out for odd amounts by affixing the necessary postage stamps to the face of the order. They proved very popular and by 1885 the Post Office was selling annually over 25 million postal orders. In the twentieth century their use with entries for football pools increased their popularity still further. In 1938 sales reached 350 million per year.

After the outbreak of war in 1914 postal orders were declared legal tender by the government, in an effort to withdraw gold coinage from circulation. The same measure was again taken in 1939, to prevent disruption to coinage circulation by bombing.

This series comprises material relating to Post Office services supplementary to the core activity of the business. It consists of reports, minutes, correspondence and memoranda relating to the introduction, operation and development of individual Post Office ancillary services, their profit and expenditure, recommended improvements and alterations, and information sheets and guides to the services.

Contains some pieces originally in POST 22.

Please contact the Archive for further information.

The Accountant General was appointed by the Postmaster General to keep an account of all revenue in the Post Office. There was another major financial position, that of the Receiver General, who was appointed independently to remove all responsibilities for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General, taking receipt of all money paid into the department, and paid cash directly from these funds. These two positions overlapped, and there is much duplication of work, and records, and they were finally amalgamated in 1854.

The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (i.e., numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 & POST 40).

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.

For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.

Up until 1830, the Irish mail service did not come under the control of the British Post Office and was overseen by its own Postmaster General. In 1831 it was re-united with Great Britain's Postal service and ceased to have its own Postmaster General. Under this new arrangement an Irish secretary was appointed to supervise Ireland's postal services and reported directly to the Postmaster General in London.

The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (i.e., numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 & POST 40).

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.

For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.

The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (ie numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). The Scottish minute series was started in 1842; previously Scottish subjects had been included in the general minute series (POST 30). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 & POST 40).

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.

For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.

A number of major changes took place during the period covered by this series. From 1 April 1922, Post Office services in Southern Ireland were transferred to the control of the provisional Irish Government. The growth in administration meant that aspects of work relating only to matters of local interest were devolved from central headquarters to district surveyors. In 1934 as part of a general reorganisation of the Post Office, a Director General was appointed to replace the office of Secretary to The Post Office. At the same time a Post Office Board was created under the chairmanship of the Postmaster General. Further changes in 1934 led to the replacement of district surveyors by regional directors, who were given full powers of day-to-day control of local postal and telecommunications affairs in their regions. This reorganisation was complete by the mid-1940s, with an increasing amount of work concerning local affairs being devolved from Headquarters, leaving it to deal only with matters of general policy and those outside the scope of regional authority.

The system of 'minuting' papers submitted to the Postmaster General by the Secretary to the Post Office for a decision (ie numbering the papers, and separately copying a note of the paper as a 'minute' into volumes indexed by subject) was introduced in 1793. It remained in use by the Post Office Headquarters registry until 1973.

Until 1921, several different major minute series were in use: that concerned with the Packet Service (POST 29), and those concerned with England and Wales (POST 30), Ireland (POST 31) and Scotland (POST 32). From 1790 until 1841, parallel 'Report' series were in use by the Secretary (POST 39 and POST 40)

In 1921, the several different minute series were replaced by a single all-embracing series (POST 33). This was suspended in 1941 as a wartime measure when a Decimal Filing system came into use (POST 102), but was resurrected in 1949. In 1955 the registration of Headquarters files began to be decentralised under several local registries serving particular departments, although the 'minuting' of cases considered worthy of preservation, and the assimilation of later cases with earlier existing minuted bundles, continued until 1973.

For further details of how this class relates to the other report and minute classes, see the following section 'Related Material'.

Up until 1830, the Irish mail service did not come under the control of the British Post Office and was overseen by its own Postmaster General. In 1831 it was re-united with Great Britain's postal service and ceased to have its own Postmaster General. Under this new arrangement an Irish secretary was appointed to supervise Ireland's postal services and reported directly to the Postmaster General in London.

A number of major changes took place during the period covered by this series. From 1 April 1922, Post Office services in Southern Ireland were transferred to the control of the provisional Irish Government. The growth in administration meant that aspects of work relating only to matters of local interest were devolved from central headquarters to district surveyors. In 1934 as part of a general reorganisation of the Post Office, a Director General was appointed to replace the office of Secretary to The Post Office. At the same time a Post Office Board was created under the chairmanship of the Post Master General. Further changes in 1934 led to the replacement of district surveyors by regional directors, who were given full powers of day-to-day control of local postal and telecommunications affairs in their regions. This reorganisation was complete by the mid-nineteen forties, with an increasing amount of work concerning local affairs being devolved from Headquarters, leaving it to deal only with matters of general policy and those outside the scope of regional authority.

During the period covered by these records the Secretary to the Post Office was Sir Francis Freeling. Freeling began his career in the Bristol Post Office and had been appointed appointed principal and resident surveyor in London by 1785. In 1797 he rose to the office of joint secretary to the Post Office and in 1798 he became sole secretary, serving in this capacity as the head of the post office until his death. His administration saw many reforms, including the growth of local penny posts and the introduction of steam power to transport the mail by rail and sea. Freeling was made a Baronet in March 1828.

This series comprises accounts of British packet services and overseas posts, including records of agents and postmasters, packet stations, and packet boats. The accounts cover income, expenditure, salaries, allowances and disbursements.

The earliest established packet stations were Dover to Calais 1633, Harwich to Holland 1660, Falmouth to Spain and Portugal 1689 and Falmouth to the West Indies in 1702.

Mail was carried in sailing packets up to 1815, but after this date these gradually gave way to steam-driven vessels. By 1840 the carrying of mail had been put into the hands of the commercial shipping lines, Cunard, Peninsular and Oriental Shipping Company, the West Indian Royal Mail, Union Castle etc., who found the postal subsidies valuable as they extended their routes further to keep pace with the expansion of the British Colonies.

After 1840 the General Post Office introduced domestic and Imperial 'penny postage' (in 1898), and before the Second World War, 1939-1945, pioneered a comprehensive airmail service, carrying letters at a standard rate without air surcharges. During the war it also introduced the airgraph and, later the airletter which was prefranked with the standard postage.

British postal agencies, (also known as British Post Offices) were established in countries throughout the world to manage and monitor the arrangements and regulations for the conveyance of mail to and from Britain and to carry out these arrangements. Agents were appointed to conduct local affairs on behalf of the Postmaster General. Their duties included the receipt and despatch of mails, the collection of postage, maintenance of accounts and reporting to the Secretary in London any matters of concern.

In 1873, British Consuls were appointed as agents with the titles of British Post Office Agent.

An overseas mail service has been in operation since 1580, before the establishment of the public postal service. A staff of ten Royal Couriers carried letters on affairs of State, or on the business of 'particular merchants' to Dover. At Dover, the postmaster provided horses for returning couriers and vessels for those passing through to Calais.

In 1619 the office of Postmaster General for Foreign Parts was created.

The mail service with foreign countries was not large in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The foreign Post Office, as it was called, had a staff of only four men in 1660. At the time of the Napoleonic wars, the Foreign Office business was barely accounting for 10% of the total net income of the Post Office. Postal connections with other countries were irregular and difficulties were experience in the capturing of letters arriving in ships and in the collection of profits. From the 1690s the government attempted to resolve these problems and extend the service by means of convention with the postal administrations of other countries for the establishment of an overseas service. The Overseas Air Mail service came into operation in 1917, thus after this date the conventions are between The Post Office and overseas postal administration for the transportation of mail by air. These can be found in POST 50/1.

In 1880 a Postal Conference was held at Paris with the view to creating an International Parcel Post. At that conference the British Post Office was represented, although having no Inland Parcel Post it was unable to enter into any international agreement.

The Inland Parcel Post came into operation on 1 August 1883, and from the outset it was intended to link this service with the International Parcel Post as soon as possible.

Early in 1883 the proposals to be submitted to the forthcoming Postal Congress were being circulated and it was apparent that there would be an attempt to introduce into the Parcel Post Convention modifications which the Post Office would find very difficult to accept while its parcel post was yet in its infancy. A circular letter

was sent to all the signatories of the convention asking whether they were willing to concede to Great Britain the special terms agreed to at the Paris Conference of 1880. The replies to the circular were generally favourable but the Treasury at this time declined to allow the Post Office to proceed with negotiations until the Inland Parcel Post was more firmly established. It was not until November 1884 that authority for the establishment of a Foreign and Colonial Parcel Post was at length obtained, and the service established.

Until 1969 the General Post Office was a government department and its expenditure was controlled by the Treasury. The Receiver General was an independent appointment, designed to remove all responsibilities for cash from the hands of the Postmaster General.

An overseas mail service has been in operation since 1580, before the establishment of the public postal service. A staff of ten Royal Couriers carried letters on affairs of State, or on the business of 'particular merchants' to Dover. In 1619 the office of Postmaster General for foreign parts was created. His couriers, who wore distinctive badges, carried letters between London and the Continent. A public office was maintained near the Exchange, where writing desks for public use were provided and where details of the Posts were displayed. Mails were despatched twice a week. By 1700 the Dover packet boats provided services to France and Flanders, and additional Packet Stations had been established. That at Harwich (established in 1660) provided a service to the Netherlands and that at Falmouth (established in 1689) provided services to Spain and Portugal. During the next century the Falmouth Station grew in importance, providing new services to the West Indies and serving British fleets in the Mediterranean. 'Packet ships/boats' is a generic term for vessels carrying mails. The contracts use the term 'packet ships' and/or vessels.

The incentive to change from sail to steam power on packets carrying the Irish mail was the need to recapture passenger income. This vital supplement to the packet captains' income from their mail carrying contracts with the Post Office was rapidly being lost to other competing Government-operated vessels and to the new fast privately-operated steamship services coming into use across the Irish Sea during 1818-1819. The Post Office's first experiments with steam power took place early in 1819, with trials of the privately owned steamers Talbot and Ivanhoe. By June 1821 - the journey time halved - the Post Office had built its own steam driven packet boats for the Holyhead station: the Meteor and the Lightening. By the end of the year steam packets were also serving the Dover Station and a revolutionary change in postal communication by sea had begun. Thus after this time the contracts often refer to 'steam vessels' rather than packet boats.

In 1823, following arguments that there would be less smuggling should the packets be under naval control, a measure that would also ensure an effective armed force in and around Channel waters, the Admiralty took control of the Falmouth Station. Management of the packet stations had become so much criticised that the remainder of the packet station were turned over to the Admiralty in 1837, where they remained until 1860 when they were transferred back to the Post Office. Thus between 1837 and 1860 the contracts were between the Admiralty and shipping companies.

Prior to 1879 the Post Office was responsible for the work of storing and distributing Postage Stamps etc. This work was apparently carried out from St Martin's le Grand and because of insufficient accommodation at that address, the Post Office in 1879 sought Treasury authority for the work to be transferred to the Inland Revenue Department. Treasury approval was given and after a trial period, the work was finally transferred about the middle of 1880. This situation continued until 1911, when a Departmental Committee was set up to consider questions relating to the supply of stamps and stamped stationery. The committee, after reviewing all relevant factors, recommended that the control of production and distribution of stamps, stamped stationery, insurance stamps, postal orders and licences should be re-transferred to the Post Office together with the staff currently employed. This course was agreed by the Treasury and in March 1914 the Inland Revenue staff employed on this work at Somerset House came under the control of the Post Office Stores Department. The Inland Revenue staff employed on Control duties at Contractors works and the staff employed in the India Stamp Branch were, however, not transferred until 1922.

From 1 April 1914 the work of demanding, storing and issuing adhesive stamps and stamped postal stationery was transferred from the Inland Revenue to the Post Office and the following contracts, made by the Board of Inland Revenue were taken over by the Postmaster General.

Messrs Harrisons and Sons - for the supply of unified (Postage and Revenue) stamps other than the 6d commencing on 1 January 1911 for a period of 10 years and thereafter from year to year terminable after 12 months calendar notice.

Messrs McCorquodale and Sons Ltd - for the supply of stamped postal stationery commencing on 1 January 1911 for a period of five or ten years and thereafter from year to year terminable after twelve calendar months' notice.

Messrs Waterlow Bros and Layton Ltd - for the supply of Insurance stamps other than a small quantity of Bi-colour stamps - commencing 1 May 1912 for a period of five years and thereafter from year to year terminable by twelve calendar months notice.

There was also an informal arrangement with Messrs Waterlow Bros and Layton for the supply of High Value Postage stamps, namely the 2s/6d, 5s/-, 10s/- and 20s/- values.

The informal arrangement with Messrs Waterlow Bros and Layton was terminated in 1915, tenders being invited from four firms. Four tenders were received and a contract was placed with Messrs De La Rue whose quotation was by far the lowest.

The following abbreviations are used in the files throughout this series.

HMSO Her Majesty's Stationery Office

PMGPostmaster General

OOD/CSD/SOperations and Overseas Department Counter Services Division (Stamps)

OOD/CSD/MOperations and Overseas Department Counter Services Division (Marketing)

SUP/DSupplies Division

SPD/HHSupplies Division Stamp Depot

SCD/EHSupplies Division Scottish Depot

LDP/PRSupplies Division London Postal Stores Depot

LDP/RSSupplies Division London Reproduction Section

HPOHead Post Office

BOBranch Office

DODistrict Office

SOSub Office

'Post-stage rates' for letters carried on the post-roads out of London were introduced in 1635 with the establishment of a state run postal service for the public's letters. The rate was based, primarily, on mileage and on the number of sheets the letter comprised of, heavier letters were charged by weight. Later, Penny Posts were set up for the collection and delivery of local letters, based on cities and other major centres beginning in London in 1680 and later extended to other provincial centres. Postage on general mails was normally paid by the recipient upon delivery.

Acts of Parliament, and later Treasury Warrants, gave authority for changes in rates and laid down charges for new services as they were introduced. The most significant was the Act of 1839, which led to the introduction of Rowland Hill's scheme for a Uniform Penny Postage in 1840. Postage rates were now based on weight and prepayable by means of the newly introduced stamped stationery and the more popular adhesive postage labels (postage stamps). The Postal Reform of 1840 also removed from Peers and ordinary Members of Parliament their privilege of franking letters for free transmission through the post.

The formation of the Universal Postal Union in 1874 led to uniformity of postage rates for overseas mail. Penny Postage within the Empire began on Christmas Day 1898. Two-tier postage, based on speed and offering the choice of a higher first-class rate to give fast delivery or a second-class rate for slower service, was introduced on 16 September 1968.

From the introduction of penny postage in 1840 all stamps and stamped stationery was produced, distributed and paid for by the Inland Revenue's Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes. In December 1876 the Inland Revenue suggested that it would be more appropriate for these costs to be met by the Post Office. At the beginning of the financial year in 1883 the Treasury instructed the Post Office to budget for the cost of stamp production. (POST 54/3).

Although the Post Office was now footing the bill, the Inland Revenue retained responsibility for manufacturing and distribution arrangements until 1 April 1914. On this date the Post Office took over all operations at the Inland Revenue's Somerset House stamp distribution centre for England and Wales. This involved the manufacture and distribution of all postage stamps, adhesive revenue and fee stamps, insurance stamps, postal orders, licenses, savings bank coupons, stamped postal stationery and telegraph forms for use in England and Wales. The transfer was authorised by the Treasury and "The Inland Revenue and Post Office (Powers and Duties) Order" was published by His Majesty's Stationery Office in March 1914. (POST 54/36).

The complicated relationship between the Inland Revenue, the Post Office, stamp designers, printers and printing hardware manufacturers is well represented in correspondence and memoranda relating to the introduction of King George V postage stamps, following his accession to the throne in 1910. (POST 54/48 - 49).

In 1962 yet another authority was to officially enter the sphere of postage stamp production. The existing relationship between the Post Office and the Council of Industrial Design was reviewed and the Postmaster General's new Stamp Advisory Committee was created consisting of Post Office and COID members. The role of the committee was clearly defined in a memorandum agreed by both parties. (POST 54/16). Today the SAC continues to influence the issue of postage stamps primarily through making recommendations to Royal Mail for commemorative stamp subjects and the selection of final designs. Other matters relating to the production and marketing of stamps and philatelic products are the responsibility of the Post Office Stamps and Philately Board (Stamps Advisory Committee).

The first stamp to be introduced for postmarking purposes was the hand-struck stamp introduced in 1660 by Colonel Henry Bishop, Postmaster General, to 'put upon every letter showing the day of the month that every letter comes to the office, so that no Letter Carrier may dare to detain a letter from post to post, which before was usual'. These so-called Bishop marks were the first British postmarks and consisted of a simple circle divided horizontally with the indication of the month in one half and the day of the month in the other.

In 1840 hand-struck cancellation stamps were introduced, to deface the newly introduced adhesive postage labels (stamps) and prevent their fraudulent re-use.

The earliest stamps were made of wood, and later brass: and were probably manufactured locally. By 1825, however, they were being made of steel, and issued centrally. This change is reflected in the fact that the earliest proof book in the collection commences in 1825 (see POST 55/10). With the introduction of the Parcel Post in 1883, where steel stamps would not have been effective, pliable stamps made of cork were introduced. By 1885, however, stamps made of rubber had come into use for the Parcel Post and other uses (see POST 55/115).

In 1799, Henry Darlot, a clerk in the Foreign Section, was chosen for the position of Army Postmaster. He was the first to accompany the Army overseas when he joined them in Holland to facilitate delivery, collect letters, and protect the revenue. In 1854, Edward Smith of the Inland Letter Office was sent to Constantinople as postmaster to H M Forces. He, along with three assistants and seven sorters, handled 450,000 letters a month to and from troops between Britain and the Crimea (via France).

The origins of the Post Office Rifles Association stem from the Fenian troubles in 1867. Sixteen hundred Post Office staff were sworn in as special constables to protect key installations, including post offices. With the passing of the danger the following year, a number of the special constables asked if a Post Office Volunteer Corps could be formed. The War Office officially sanctioned the proposal, and the 49th Middlesex Rifle Volunteers were formed in 1868. The title of the regiment was changed to the 24th Middlesex (Post Office) Rifle Volunteers in 1880. In 1882, the Army Postal Corps was formed from the members of the Middlesex Volunteers to run the Army's postal service. A sister unit, the Field Telegraph Corps, was formed from postal workers in 1883 becoming 'I' Company of the 24th Middlesex. Both units were embodied in the reserve of the Royal Engineers in 1884, although still attached to the 24th Middlesex for drill and discipline.

The Boer War saw eleven officers and 624 other ranks serve with the Army Postal Corps between 1899 and 1902. Their base in Capetown connected with many temporary Field Post Offices and five travelling post offices. 68.9 million letters and newspapers and 1.4 million parcels were delivered to the troops. In an average December week, 789 bags of mail were received in Capetown, and in the busiest week of the war 643,000 letters and newspapers and 33,967 parcels were delivered.

In 1908 the 24th Middlesex Volunteers became the 8th Battalion of the City of London Regiment (Post Office Rifles) on formation of the Territorial Force. This battalion and its two sister battalions (2/8th and 3/8th raised during the First World War) were largely made up of Post Office personnel but no longer had any direct links with the Army Post Office Corps. In 1913 the Army Post Office Corps became the Royal Engineers Postal Section and the Telegraph Reserve became the Royal Engineers Signal Section. At the outbreak of the First World War a Base Post Office was set up at Le Harve, whence army mail went to an Advanced Base Post Office and then to Field Offices and Branches. Primary sorting in the UK was done from the Home Depot. All mail below 4 oz. from servicemen was carried free, with letters to them addressed "c/o GPO, London" then sorted by code to preserve secrets of military layout. Censorship was operated by military authorities. The shortage of men led to a reduction in the number of deliveries and 35,000 women were temporarily employed. Subdivision of the London Postal Districts was introduced in 1917 to aid the women sorters.

The Second World War presented an even greater challenge, with mobile fronts all over the world and enemy air attacks at home. At the outbreak of the war the Post Office was the largest employer in the country, and by mid-war nearly a third had volunteered for active service. Fifty thousand staff were members of the Post Office Home Guard, who were detailed to defend telephone and telegraph facilities in case of invasion. Postwomen were again taken on to fill the gaps, often working long shifts. Mobilisation then evacuation caused millions of people to change address, greatly increasing the volume of mail and the percentage of insufficiently addressed letters. Payment of pensions and allowances greatly increased, as well as new tasks like the distribution of millions of ration books, public information leaflets and permits. The blackout made sorting, delivery and station work very difficult, and the need to blacken the glass roofs of sorting offices etc. meant that many sorters and telephonists worked all the time by artificial light.

Air raids brought large scale destruction of Post Office buildings, mostly in major urban centres, telephone cables had to be repaired or re-routed as quickly as possible, destruction at major railway termini often meant improvised re-routing of mails, and bomb damage sometimes made letter delivery hazardous and difficult, when the numbers on houses, or the occupants, or even the houses themselves might disappear overnight. In September 1940 23 post offices were destroyed in one night. During the Blitz post office buildings had their own fire-fighting teams composed of staff, often very efficient in preserving its buildings.

The Army Post Office was based at Nottingham in a former textile factory. Army and RAF mail was handled there by hundreds of WRAC women, plus men unfit for active service and GPO officials who had volunteered. Insufficiently addressed letters were also handled at Nottingham by the Post Office. Naval mail for ships in foreign waters was handled by Wrens at King Edward Building, London, then by the Admiralty at Reading. Hostilities in the Mediterranean posed particular difficulties for getting mail to British forces in the Middle and Far East. The sea route around the Cape added 12,000 miles to the journey, a 3 month delay, and aircraft space was at a premium. Microphotography offered a solution and the airgraph service was introduced in 1941. Some 330 million airgraphs were sent until the service ended in July 1945. At first airgraphs and air letters were for military use only, but were then made available to civilians. By 1945 600,000 civilian air letters per week were being despatched to 33 different countries.

Prisoner of war mail was despatched abroad by the Post Office. Between 1941 and 1945, 26,250,000 parcels (both Red Cross parcels and parcels from next-of-kin) were sent from Mount Pleasant via Portugal to Geneva (despite difficulties in getting around or across enemy territory) where they were transmitted forward by the International Red Cross. About 200,000 letters per week were sent to POWs from Britain by air to Lisbon, where an exchange system operated with mail from Germany for German prisoners in Britain and Canada. The Post Office was in effect a fourth service, vital to the survival of the state and performed its duty well despite labour shortage, the need to recruit and train inexperienced staff, and enemy attack.

Until 1969 The Post Office was a department of the Civil Service. The Civil Service consequently had a role to play in recruitment matters. Established staff had job security and enjoyed many benefits, such as pensions. Non-Established workers had no such benefits, they tended to be full-time boy messengers and part-time auxiliary postmen and women. In 1849 it was decided that promotion to Establishment should not be expected to result from higher social status. Auxiliaries signed a form which excluded any right to fill a permanent post, however, promotion continued to be an incentive to recruitment and a reward for competent work.

In the first half of the nineteenth century appointments were generally made by patronage, possible recruits were put forward by high ranking employees, although in theory a test still had to be passed. This method of recruitment was severely criticised in the second half of the Nineteenth Century, and in the 'Report upon The Post Office' in 1854, it was suggested that 'The Postmaster General should lay down strict rules for the examination of all candidates for admission, either in the class of Clerks, or into that of Sorters and Letter Carriers, in order to test their capacity, and should take care also to satisfy himself as to their characters, before making any appointment'.

The year 1870 saw the implementation of the open competitive examinations in the Civil Service, and the Post Office was obliged to appoint the clerks in the Secretary's Office from the successful candidates. The open examinations were for the Civil Service as a whole, but there were closed competitive examinations through which existing employees could try for promotion. The examinations were not just used for ensuring that recruits were competent to perform the job. When women joined the Post Office, particularly as clerks, the examination included a foreign language paper. There was no requirement at all for knowledge of a foreign language, however, the examination acted as a guarantee that the women that passed were of the 'proper' social standing.

In 1870 the telegraph services transferred to the Post Office. Initially the staff retained their separate duties but in 1876 the smaller provincial offices amalgamated, and this arrangement extended to larger towns in 1882. It was decided that there should not be a distinction between telegraphists and post office clerks in order to permit a more flexible adjustment of the 'indoor staff' to variations in traffic, and to reduce the threat of disruption from any telegraphist's strike. However, in practice, dual training only worked in the small provincial offices. In larger offices the training was often wasted, as the staff always specialised.

As the Post Office was a Civil Service Department, it was obliged to follow orders. One of these was the order in 1897 to employ ex-servicemen. Prior to that, boy messengers, although being Non-Establishment, usually moved into an Established post within the Post Office at the age of sixteen. The order to employ ex-servicemen meant that these vacancies for boy messengers dried up, and many who would otherwise have stayed in the Post Office were left jobless, and without skills. The Post Office was therefore heavily criticised by the Royal Commission on the Poor Laws and the Relief of Distress. The dilemma of how to keep all parties satisfied continued until the inter-war period, when the Post Office was forced to abandon its traditional practice of utilising part-time labour.

The appointments procedure in The Post Office during this period was very complicated. Employees could either be Established, which meant they had privileges and rights, such as superannuation, or they were non-Established, which meant that they were probably part-time, and had no benefits or job security. Established employees were also civil servants and therefore were affected by any changes in the system, such as the gradual efforts to replace patronage with examinations and grading. Sub-postmasters and packet captains were not officially employed by The Post Office but were sub-contracted. Sub-postmasters tended to work in another line of business such as greengrocing and run a sub-post office as a side-line. Up until the end of the nineteenth century appointments were made by a system of patronage. Staff were appointed by being nominated to posts. Although they were supposed to then take a test of competency, this was often just a formality. The broad sweeping changes in the Civil Service with the introduction of competitive examinations meant that this practice was abandoned at the end of the nineteenth century.

The word 'Establishment' has a number of meanings in the present context. In historical writing about the Post Office, the word is variously used to describe: the Post Office structure as a whole; all Post Office salaried staff; all staff employed in senior positions; and the various buildings and branches themselves, or 'establishments'. However, for the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the word is predominantly used to distinguish between staff that were employed directly by the Post Office, enjoying a yearly salary, benefits and a pension, and those who, though working for the Post Office in some capacity, did not. Discussing this period, one postal historian argues that… 'a firm line was drawn between those who were part of the privileged and protected core 'on the establishment' and the part-time or temporary staff who were denied the benefits and security. Moreover, the established staff were located in a hierarchy which offered advancement and promotion; the Post Office offered not only a job but also the prospect of a career' (Martin Daunton Royal Mail: The Post Office since 1840 (London: Athlone Press, 1985), p. 248). Indeed the benefits of being 'on the establishment' would usually include a retirement age of 60, a pension (after the 1859 Superannuation Act), some paid holiday, and even limited healthcare. As Daunton has noted, in terms of the benefits enjoyed by established staff, the Post Office remained preferable to private employment until the establishment of the welfare state after 1945.

Unestablished staff, particularly in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, remained numerous for a number of reasons. Working for the Post Office has had a longstanding reputation for being 'unsocial work'; that is, the peaks of postal traffic have tended to be in the early morning and early evening. For this reason, there has always been a high demand for part-time workers and in the modern era the Post Office has consequently employed a large proportion of staff who did not find their way onto the Establishment books. Likewise, Sub-Postmasters have often run other businesses from the same premises as a local Post Office branch and were therefore not part of the established staff. It will already be clear that owing to the many changes that have occurred over the centuries and because of the different types of Establishment records that have been generated over this time, neatly defining 'Establishment staff' is problematic. The remaining discussion will illuminate the structure of this class of records by briefly considering the chronology of the emergence of the different sorts of Establishment books within the context of the broader developments of British postal history.

The first Establishment book was produced in 1691. King Charles I had inaugurated an embryonic state postal service in 1635, and having survived the upheavals of the English Civil War, it had gained more of an organisational capacity by the end of that century with the establishment of state control of the London Penny Post, although there are still just 20 established officers named in this record of the early Post Office staff. There were a similarly small number listed in Queen Anne's Establishment book of 1702, in which the Post Office Establishment was one of a number of state Offices and Departments detailed. By 1747, Establishment books began to look a little more like later publications, with staff details of office, title, name, and salary per annum, for the London, Dublin and Edinburgh Establishments, the London Penny Post and details of the Packet Boat service. As the composition of the Post Office structure gradually evolved, new information was recorded in the books. For instance, Branch Commissioners and Postmasters' salaries were included from 1760; the Secretary's Office, Receiver General's Office, Accountant General's Office, Inland Office, tradesmen, pensions, rents and taxes from 1769; and more significant reforms, such as those of 1783, warranted specific descriptive attention in the Establishment books (see POST 59/19, which records revision proposals for the Establishment, its staff and new pay proposals and comparisons).

From 1785, mail coaches were used to convey letters and parcels across Britain and over the next two decades Post Office net revenue increased from £150,000 to £700,000 per annum. The Establishment book for 1792 (POST 59/22) lists establishment developments since the introduction of mail coaches and thereafter an increased number of Deputy Postmasters of provincial towns are listed. Indeed, from 1800 on, a number of reforms and the steady growth of services precipitated the publishing of further types of Establishment books, such as those found in Sub-Series 3 of this class: 'Establishment books and lists of the London Postal Service'. Within these records, an evolution of the organisational structure of a city's postal operations can be traced, from the London Penny Post, which soon became the Twopenny Post, to the introduction of postal regions, to the twentieth century infrastructural advancements such as the Post Office (London) Railway, or 'Mail Rail'. Throughout, this Sub-series of Establishment books detail the various departments, salaries, positions and lists many of the established staff by name.

By the 1800s, the yearly Establishment books recorded a greater volume and variety of information of this sort, in keeping with the concomitant enlargement of Britain's postal processes that occurred in the years and decades that followed the introduction of the mail coach system at the end of the eighteenth century. For instance, the Establishment book for 1832 (POST 59/37) provides details of when an individual was appointed, their name, how much they were paid on the Establishment, the total amount paid, and a narrative account of duties undertaken. Details cover the Board, Secretary's Office, Mail Coach Office, Surveyors' Office, Solicitor's Office, Receiver General's Office, Accountant General's Office, Dead Letter Office, Foreign Office, Inland Office, mail guards, packet agents, post towns in England, and the ships, captains, tons, engines, staff and rate of passage of packet stations. Also included is a report on the way in which mail coaches were supplied and repaired, rules and regulations of horse post contracts, copies of circulars to surveyors, marine mail guard instructions, statements of regulations in operation respecting the whole process of the collection of Post Office revenue, and an abstract of comparative statements of gross revenue at post towns in England 1833-1834.

In many ways, the organisational unfurling of a modern Post Office came after the major reforms initiated by Rowland Hill in the 1840s. The changes brought in by Hill included the introduction of a national Penny Post in which the recipient of a letter or parcel no longer paid for the service. Rather, the sender affixed a pre-paid adhesive stamp, the Penny Black. The subsequent growth in postal services was tremendous and this caused many changes to the quantity and character of Establishment books and Establishment records. POST 59/177 'Report Upon The Post Office' describes the structure of the organisation as it stood in 1854, commenting that 'The Establishment of the Post Office necessarily extends over the kingdom, and indeed all over the British possessions [abroad]…Its Head-quarters are in London; there are Metropolitan Offices in Edinburgh and Dublin; and there are District Offices in every town and almost every village, throughout the country' (p.3). Between 1860 and 1880, the number of full-time (Established) staff rose from 25,192 to 46,956 and whilst in 1890 the total number of full-time and part-time staff stood at 113,541, this had risen to 234,008 in 1920 (Daunton, pp. 195-196).

Naturally, accompanying this growth in staff was a growth in the numbers of physical Post Office Establishments. There were 4,028 in 1840 and 24,354 in 1913 (Daunton, p. 276). The Establishment books in Sub-series 3 'Provincial Establishment books' furnish details for many of the provincial districts within which such branches were located. For instance, POST 59/412-424 offers the particulars for offices in Worcester for the years 1874-1964, providing a wide assortment of details regarding postmen, assistant postmen, messengers and telegraphists, as well as basic information on sub-offices and the pay, pensions and other details of their personnel. The information that can be gathered from these records varies from establishment to establishment and over time, but these are useful resources for garnering facts and figures for many provincial postal areas, particularly for the first half of the twentieth century.

A number of further developments occurred from the late nineteenth century into the mid-twentieth century that affected the way these records were kept and consequently what one can expect to find. These include the acquisition of telegraph and telephone systems, the expansion of the work of the Post Office Engineering Department, the introduction of insurance and banking services and much more. Indeed, in the main Establishment book for 1931 (POST 59/163), the details contained are divided across 17 categories:

Postmaster General and Secretaries; Accountant General's Department; Central Telegraph Office; Engineering Department; London Postal Service; London Telephone Service; Medical Department (London); Money Order Department; Solicitor's Office (London); Stores Department; Surveyor's Department; Postmaster Surveys; Provincial Telephone Staff; Head Postmasters; Assistant Postmasters and Chief Superintendents; and Sub-office Postmasters.

To give some idea of the kind of information held in Establishment books by this time, consider the front page to the section entitled 'Savings Bank Department' in the above-mentioned 1931 Establishment book (p.156). Here, a summary of all male staff in the department can be found (at this time, the information for each department was split into male and female categories) and it can be learnt what wages were being paid to doorkeepers, liftmen, boy messengers, cleaners, foremen and even department firemen (between 30-45 shillings per week), as well as how many of each were employed. It is also stated that the department contained 600 clerks who were paid between £60-£250 per annum. At the top of the page, the numbers and wages of senior staff - from higher-grade clerks right up to the department controller - are listed and on the pages that follow this summary, all of these 306 senior staff members are listed individually. For each of these entries, the details given are date of birth, dates of appointments (listing previous positions held), name and salary. This format of presenting information is roughly followed for the other departments represented in the 1931 Establishment book, with some exceptions. For instance, the passage detailing provincial Establishments lists postal districts in alphabetical order, and provides the numbers of staff for each. This information is presented in table format and is divided into indoor / outdoor staff; male / female staff; and finally into job types such as sorting clerks, telegraphists, postmen and superintendents. For example, on p. 277 it states that there were 529 sorting clerks and 1430 postmen in the Liverpool postal district, amongst a range of other staff figures.

Finally, although this became the dominant format for the main Establishment books that continued to be published annually throughout much of the remaining century, a number of changes occurred after 1969, when the Post Office ceased to be a department of state and became a nationalised industry. From this time, including the subsequent part-privatisation of the business in later decades, the books became known as 'Lists of the Principal Officers in the Post Office'. These publications ceased to provide details of pay, but continued to list senior staff, their dates of birth and their various appointments within the Post Office, by department and also in an alphabetical index at the back of each book.

Not available at present.

The first Post Office employees to be issued with a uniform were the Mail Coach Guards who, from 1784, wore a scarlet coat with blue lapels and a black top hat with a gold band. As of 1793 the London General Post Letter Carriers were furnished with a scarlet coat with blue lapels, blue waistcoat and beaver hat with a gold band. By 1834 this uniform was worn by letter carriers in Edinburgh and Dublin as well as London. (See POST 61/1).

1837 saw the introduction of a uniform for the London district 'Twopenny Postmen'. These men wore the same blue waistcoat and beaver hat, but were given a blue coat with a red collar. This arrangement lasted eighteen years until the amalgamation of the General and Twopenny Postmen when a new uniform was issued to all London Letter Carriers. The new dress included a scarlet frock coat, glazed hat and grey trousers, it was the first time that trousers had been issued as part of the uniform. (See POST 61/63).

The Post Office took over responsibility for the country's Telegraph Service in 1870 and with it inherited a responsibility to provide Boy Messengers with a uniform as a supplement to their wages, something previously carried out for some time by the private telegraph companies). By providing suitable work clothes for the Boy Messengers the Post Office must have been spurred to extend the entitlements to uniform because, by 1872, the whole delivery force was receiving official Post Office dress.

Decisions made relating to uniform had always been rather disorganised with reports being produced here and there addressing very limited subject areas. (See POST 61/7). In an attempt to rectify this haphazard approach, the Committee on Uniform Clothing was created in 1908, and by 1910 the committee had produced a comprehensive report standardising postal uniforms nationwide by creating six 'Classes' of attire which corresponded directly with the grading of each duty. (See POST 61/11).

During the First World War (1914-1918) the number of Postwomen employed by the Post Office rocketed as more and more male workers were drafted into the armed forces. Previously female letter carriers had only been afforded a limited clothing entitlement, but as of 1916 they were provided with a blue serge coat and skirt, a waterproof skirt and cape, and a blue straw hat. (See POST 61/65).

Most of the main aspects of uniform manufacture and distribution remained unchanged from this point until 1948 when a review of Post Office Engineering grades was ordered by the Postmaster General. (See POST 61/4). Following the successful creation of scales of entitlement for the new engineering grades the Postmaster General decided to order a comprehensive review of all grades not covered by the 1948 agreement. For this task a new committee entitled 'The Joint Working Party on Uniform and Protective Clothing' was created and after four years of research and deliberation produced the 1954 report examining the arrangements for supply and issue of uniform and protective clothing. (See POST 61/13). (For committee papers and minutes of meetings held by the Joint Working Party on Uniform see POST 61/67 - 72).

The Post Office Welfare Service was formally established in 1947 to provide help and support to employees and pensioners. It was originally introduced to assist employees in managing their problems, with professional welfare officers on hand in all major towns throughout the United Kingdom to offer advice and guidance. The Welfare Service was to provide confidential counselling and advice and practical help on matters such as bereavement, financial distress, accommodation issues, family and relationship problems, and alcohol and drug abuse.

From 1972 the Post Office has also had an Occupational Health Service to deal with employee health issues. Led by the Chief Medical Officer, each Postal Region was given its own Regional Medical Officer and a team of doctors and nurses providing services to all levels of staff. Its focus was to be on the prevention of health issues rather than the treatment of them. The Occupational Health Service was initially established for the Post Office and British Telecom. However, following the establishment of British Telecom as a separate corporation, the Post Office set up a new service in 1981.

In 1988 the Occupational Health Service merged with Employee Support to form the Post Office's Employee Health Service. The aim of this service was to provide for the physical, social and psychological well-being of employees. The Employee Health Service currently provides advice on sickness absence and employee health management, medico-legal issues, first aid, and social well-being. It also undertakes employment assessments, health screenings, health consultancy and health and well-being education.

There are also councils, societies and associations for postal workers set up to focus on staff welfare. These include the Post Office Recreation Council, Post Office Relief Fund, Benenden Healthcare Society, P&T Leisure Centres, and the Rowland Hill Benevolent Fund.

Recreational activities have also been an important part of staff welfare and many local sports and social clubs have been formed by employees throughout the postal service. They include sports such as golf, bowling, football, cricket and rowing and hobbies such as drama, photography and art. Some examples of these clubs are The Mount Pleasant Sports and Social Club, the London Postal Service Horticultural Associaton, the Eastern Postal Sports and Social Club, and the Post Office Art Club.