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William Norman Pickles, born 6 March 1885 in Leeds; educated at Leeds Grammar School and studied medicine at the medical school of the then Yorkshire College. In his third year he proceeded with his clinical studies at the Leeds General Infirmary, where he qualified as a licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries in 1909. After serving as resident obstetric officer at the Infirmary, he began a series of temporary jobs and locums in general practice. In 1910 he graduated MB BS London and became MD in 1918. His first visit to Aysgarth, Yorkshire, was as a locum for Dr Hime in 1912. After serving as a ship's doctor on a voyage to Calcutta, he returned to Aysgarth later that year as second assistant to Dr Hime. In 1913 he and the other assistant Dean Dunbar were able to purchase the practice. Pickles served as general practitioner in Aysgarth until he retired in 1964. His only break was when, interrupted by World War One, he served as surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Volunteers.

In 1926 Pickles read and was inspired by 'The Principles of Diagnosis and Treatment in Heart Affections' by Sir James Mackenzie, who had made many important contributions to medical knowledge from his general practice in Burnley. An epidemic of catarrhal jaundice broke out in Wensleydale in 1929 affecting two hundred and fifty people out of a population of five thousand seven hundred. Pickles was able to trace the whole epidemic to a girl who he had seen in bed on the morning of a village fete and who he never thought would get up that day. In this enclosed community Pickles was able to trace and to establish the long incubation for this disease of 26 to 35 days. He published an account of the epidemic in the British Medical Journal, 24 May 1930. Two years later he published record of an outbreak of Sonne dysentery and in 1933 he recorded in the British Medical Journal the first out break of Bornholm disease (Epidemic Myalgia). His first published medical paper, on Vincent's disease, was published in the Royal Naval Medical Journal in 1918.

In 1935 Pickles described some of his work to the Royal Society of Medicine. After this meeting a leading article in the British Medical Journal stated 'It may mark the beginning of a new era in epidemiology'. Major Greenwood, an outstanding epidemiologist of the time, suggested that he should write a book on his observations, which was published in 1939 as Epidemiology in Country Practice. It became a medical classic [and is still in print today], establishing Pickles's reputation. It showed how a country practice could be a field laboratory with unique opportunities for epidemiologists.

Pickles was Milroy lecturer at the Royal College of Physicians of London (1942) and Cutter lecturer at Harvard University (1948). In 1946 he shared the Stewart prize of the British Medical Association with Major Greenwood, in 1953 the Bisset-Hawkins medal of the Royal College of Physicians, and in 1955 he was elected an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and was awarded the first James Mackenzie medal. He was honoured with an Honorary Doctorate of Science from Leeds University in 1950, and in 1957 was appointed CBE. He became the first President of the College of General Practitioners in 1953, a post he held until 1956. He sat on numerous committees including the General Health Services Council and Register General's Advisory Committee and lectured extensively both at home and abroad. Pickles died 2 March 1969.

Ross Institute and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases

Topley , William Whiteman Carlton , 1886-1944 , bacteriologist

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The first Public Relations officer was appointed on 1 October 1933, although an active 'public relations' function existed at least ten years earlier. This was followed by the formation of the Public Relations Department, which was formally established on 25 April 1934, when other changes in headquarters organisation were made.

The Post Office was the first government ministry to form a separate public relations department. In 1934 the first charter of the Public Relations Department stated that the responsibilities of the department were defined as 'being to promote good relations with the public, and to conduct sales and publicity for the services provided by the Post Office' (POST 108/18). The department was so successful that the Home Office borrowed its controller and some other officers in 1938 to plan publicity for air raid precautions. In 1939 some of its staff were seconded to help in establishing the wartime Ministry of Information.

In September 1939 many of the department's remaining staff were dispersed to assist in other government work, but it was soon realised that public relations work was just as necessary in wartime as in peacetime, and the department's operations were revived.

By the 1950s the Department was organised into three main divisions, press and broadcast, publicity, and publications. Press and broadcast was the oldest division of the three, having been established in 1934. From November 1940 it was headed by a specialist with previous experience as a journalist. The division issued news bulletins, and other bulletins on individual matters which were distributed to newspapers, broadcasters and other interested parties. In addition the divisions officers answered a continual flow of enquiries, mainly by telephone, from journalists. The division also organised occasional press conferences for ministers.

The publicity division's main area of responsibility was to ensure that the Post Office was presented in print, display, and film with the highest possible standard of modern art and technique.

The publications division was responsible for compiling and editing the various Post Office publications. These included the 'Post Office Guide', 'Post offices in the United Kingdom', 'London Post offices and Streets', and 'Postal Addresses'.

During the 1990s the department was renamed as Communication Services and was positioned as part of Royal Mail Group centre. Four directors, reporting to a director of Communication Services, were responsible for: Regional Communications; Communications Consultancy; Creative Services; and Commercial matters.

Communication Services activities and functions were reviewed and redesigned, and changes made to resourcing levels. Under the new structure Communication Services was organised and run more like an external agency with much closer attention paid to costs and to profits. The intention was to expand the range of services offered, to support the Post Office aim of being recognised as the complete distribution company, and to get much closer to the users of its services.

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Much of the artwork in the series was commissioned by the Public Relations Department, which was first created in 1934, under the first Post Office Public Relations Officer, Stephen Tallents.

Right from the conception of the department, it assumed responsibility for commissioning designs for posters, which it considered to be a vital part of Post Office publicity, it did this initially in consultation with a 'Poster Advisory Group' but, from 1937, it operated in its own right. The department approached leading artists for the production of posters of two kinds, known respectively as 'Prestige' and 'Selling'. 'Prestige' posters fell into two categories: those specially prepared for distribution to schools and those for display in the public offices of Crown Post Offices and non-public offices in Post Office buildings, they were intended to be more formal in style, eye catching rather than persuasive. 'Selling' posters had a direct 'selling' appeal and were intended to persuade the beholder to use a particular service or buy a particular product.

The Post Office Greetings Telegram Service was introduced in July 1935 as a means of revitalising the telegraph service and the Public Relations Department was involved from the outset, involving itself both in publicising the new service and in commissioning artists to produce designs for the forms themselves. Greetings telegrams were to be associated with special occasions and as such, designs had to be particularly attractive, with an element of luxury, this was encapsulated in the golden envelope designed to accompany the form.

The Public Relations Department underwent several changes in structure throughout the decades following the 1930s, but the production of good publicity literature, both written and visual, continued to be a very important part of its remit. Post Corporation, commissioned artists tended to be less well known and the focus of the posters turned increasingly towards the promotion of special stamp issues and philatelic products.

In the 1990s, the Public Relations Department was renamed as Communication Services and was positioned as part of Royal Mail Group Centre. This signified a change in outlook, with an emphasis on 'hard sell' and the commissioning of advertising agencies to work on individual campaigns for special services and products.

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Post Office

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.

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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.

Post Office

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.

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Sans titre

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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

Unknown

No further information available

In 1934 as part of a general re-organisation 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 re-organisation also took place in 1934 with 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.

The establishment of a functional board for the Post Office was first recommended in the Bridgeman report of 1932, and the Post Office Board was subsequently established with eleven members, including all the General Directorate and Directors. Recommendations made by the Board were put before the Postmaster General through the Secretary's Minutes to the Postmaster General. However the board had no executive power, and decisions rested ultimately with the Postmaster General. Although the Bridgeman Committee had envisaged the Board as a controlling body, in time it came to be more of a reviewing body and, due to its increasing size and the consequent difficulty of assembling members, its meetings became less frequent.

In November 1964 the board was reconstituted with the following members: Postmaster General, Assistant Postmaster General, Director General and the General Directorate, with Directors invited to attend as appropriate. The board considered and gave decisions on all major issues of policy and administration. In general, ministerial approval on important issues of policy was sought by submitting papers to the board and not by submitting minutes to the Postmaster General, except where a decision was urgently required before the board could be convened.

Before 1967 at Post Office Headquarters, 'common' engineering, finance, and personnel departments operated in parallel with Postal and Telecommunications service departments, all reporting through the general directorate to the Postmaster General. From 1967, Posts (which incorporated the existing remittance services and New Giro service) and Telecommunications were put under separate Managing Directors, each with nearly complete finance, personnel, and technological support provided by dividing up common departments.

A substantial 'central' personnel function remained and legal and some other services were left centralised. Telecommunications took on procurement and research for both businesses. The National Data Processing Service was established by Act of Parliament and began to function as an independent (central) service. Managerial links between Posts and Telecommunications began to disappear.

1969 was a year of change; with the passing of The Post Office Act in October 1969, the Post Office became a nationalised industry, established as a public Corporation.

For this reason there was two Post Office Boards in 1969; the 'old' Post Office Board (with Board papers carrying the 'POB' prefix) had its final meeting on 22 July 1969, after this, a newly constituted Board was formed and it had its first meeting on 25 July 1969 (Papers produced by the new Board were given the reference 'PO').

The Corporation was split into two businesses, Posts and Telecommunications. The office of Postmaster General was discontinued, and the Post Office was headed by a Chairman and Chief Executive/Deputy Chairman. This role was directly appointed by the Post Office Board. Members of the board also included the Managing Directors Posts and Giro, and Telecommunications, the head of the National Data Processing Service, members for industrial relations, technology and, from January 1970, a finance member.

Following the establishment of the Post Office Corporation, a second board was created, the Post Office Management Board. Both were responsible for overseeing operations, but the Post Office Board took responsibility for strategic issues, while the Post Office Management Board took over the day to day running of the Corporation. The Post Office Management Board was a non-statutory board which consisted mostly of full time board members and two officials. It was to meet monthly and receive reports from the businesses on their operations and review them in accordance with board policies, consider capital projects for which board approval was required, to examine the annual investment programme and other tasks as required.

In 1971, the Post Office Board established an Emergency Committee to handle the strike of that year.

During 1978-1979 the board operated under an experiment in industrial democracy with about half of its membership nominated by unions. This experiment was, however, considered to be unsuccessful.

In 1980, in preparation for the departure of British Telecom from the Post Office, two separate boards were established for the Telecommunications and Posts and Girobank businesses. These two new boards replaced the Post Office Management Board, and were additional to the main Post Office Board.

The main Post Office Board continued to oversee the transition period, although it met less frequently. The Chairman of the Post Office was the Chairman of both new boards (as was the Secretary) and the boards were intended to deal with matters wholly or mainly the concern of each business. They had the power to defer matters to the Post Office Board, and power to authorise action to proceed on decisions made by the board. It was stated that these boards were not intended to replace the Managing Director's Committees.

At this time, discussion was also begun regarding what procedures would be put in place to replace the 1978-1979 experiment in industrial democracy. It was suggested that a new joint body should be created for each of the businesses (Posts, and Telecommunications) titled the National Joint Policy Council, consisting of executive board members and the General Secretaries / Presidents of unions to meet and discuss a wider range of issues than the National Joint Council General Purposes Committee had done so previously. The idea was to air important policy, planning and performance issues on the National Joint Policy Councils before board decisions were taken to increase awareness of union views. In 1981 the National Joint Council General Purposes Committee was renamed the National Joint Council Posts and Giro Committee.

In 1980 the Chairman's Executive Committee was established by the Post Office Board. This Committee considered matters affecting the running of the Posts and Giro businesses relating to performance and progress against targets and personnel. This committee was renamed the Post Office Executive Committee (POEC) in September 1992.

In 1981 a Girobank and Counters Committee was established which comprised the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, board member for Finance, Personnel and Industrial relations member, Miss E Cole, Sir Clifford Cornford, Mr P E Moody, Senior Director National Girobank, the Director of Marketing and Customer Services National Girobank. In 1985 a Giro Board was created in anticipation of the establishment of Girobank as a public limited company (plc).

Also in 1981, the telecommunications business of the Post Office became a separate public corporation, trading as British Telecom. When the responsibility for telecommunications was transferred from the Post Office Corporation to British Telecom, copies of board papers relevant to the new corporation were passed to British Telecom. Following the 1981 split the Post Office was then re-organised into two distinct businesses: Posts and Parcels.

In 1981, the Post Office established an Audit Committee consisting of three part time members, the board member for finance and external auditors and internal auditors invited to attend as appropriate. It was to meet four times a year, with two meetings to consider the accounts, one to consider the external auditors letters to management, and one to meet internal auditors. The terms of reference for the committee stated that it was 'to review, as necessary, the financial policies and procedures of the Corporation and their implementation, including particularly the adequacy of the Corporation's internal control systems, and to report thereon to the Board through the Chairman of the Corporation.'

The Post Office was restructured during 1986 to create three businesses: Subscription Services Limited, Royal Mail, and Parcelforce, and the make up of the board members reflected this. In 1987 the network of Post Offices was established as Post Office Counters Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Post Office, and the Counters Management Committee was established in 1986 to replace previous monthly AD meetings. The principle of this committee was that it would deal with matters of a collective concern and of a longer term nature, for example, monthly monitoring reports and progress against the business plan. It was an effort to make more effective use of management time, and provide for more effective management of the counters business. It was renamed the Counters Executive Committee in July 1993, and reported to the Post Office Counters Board, and the main Post Office Board.

In 1988, business boards were established for the Letters, Parcels and Counters Businesses. A Major Projects Expenditure Committee (MaPEC) was also established during this year to deal with the financing of major one-off projects.

In 1990, Post Office Parcels changed its name to Parcelforce Worldwide and was launched as an independent division. National Girobank was also privatised in this year and sold to Alliance and Leicester Building Society.

The Postal Services Act 2000 created a company with more commercial freedoms and a more strategic relationship with government, and on 26 March 2001, it became a plc wholly owned by the UK government (its sole shareholder). A new regulatory framework was set up with an independent regulator (Postcomm) and a reformed consumer body (Postwatch). On 4 November 2002, a name change from Consignia to Royal Mail Group plc occurred.

The Royal Mail Group website states that the 'Royal Mail Holdings plc Board sets the strategic vision of the company. It is responsible for driving the four goals of the renewal plan: being a great place to work; improving customer service; returning to profitability; and delivering positive cash flow.' The Management Board 'comprises all the Executive Directors of Royal Mail Holdings plc and certain other Senior Executives of the Group. The Management Board develops and monitors deployment of the Group's strategy, annual operating plans and budgets for Board approval. It reviews operational activities, and sets policies where these are not reserved to the Board.'

There are three formal committees of the board including the following; Nomination Committee, Remuneration Committee, Audit and Risk Committee. Terms of reference for these committees can be found on the Royal Mail Group website. (http://www.royalmailgroup.com/portal/rmg/jump1?catId=23200529&mediaId=23200554 - last accessed November 2006).

Post Office

A system of outside consultation of Post Office administration was initiated by Herbert Samuel, the Postmaster General, as early as 1913 in the form of local telegraph and telephone committees. These were set up by chambers of commerce, trade or, in their absence, by local authorities. In 1921 Frederick G Kellaway, the Postmaster General, under pressure from the Federation of British Industries, set up a national body known as the Post Office Advisory Committee. This was the direct ancestor of bodies still operating today. These committees had only a limited effect, mainly on particular details of the running of the service, and they did not have much impact. By the early 1930s, the national council was meeting very infrequently. In the years immediately following World War Two the local committees were revamped to cover all aspects of Post Office work.

In August 1969 it was decided to establish a Users Council. This was titled the Post Office Users National Council (POUNC). Its aim was to represent at national level the interests of the users of Post Office services, to ensure the existence of adequate consultative arrangements at local level, to receive proposals from the Postmaster General, and to make recommendations to him about the services.

These powers were established under the 1969 Post Office Act. POUNC was an independent statutory body, funded by the Department of Trade and Industry. It was modelled on the consultative or consumers councils of the major nationalised industries. It covered the whole of the British Isles, and three country councils covering Scotland, Wales and Monmouthshire and Northern Ireland. These councils were independent from The Post Office. An independent chairman, (although appointed by the Postmaster General), sat with thirty two members who were unpaid, except for reasonable out of pocket expenses. All members were appointed on 1 January 1970 and would serve, initially for three years. These members formed a cross section of Post Office users, and, as they served in a personal not a delegate capacity, were free to express their own views, and to represent the views of the ordinary Post Office user. Some of its work was delegated to individual committees, one for postal matters, one for telecommunications, other committees were formed as the need arose. From its establishment the Post Office provided a secretary and premises. The work of the council would arise from matters put to it by the Post Office, the public, and local advisory committees. This gave the local advisory committees a direct link to Post Office headquarters, something not previously available to them. POUNC maintained close liaison with Advisory Committees, receiving regular reports of their meetings, and circulating a periodic POUNC newsletter.

Between 180 and 200 Post Office Advisory Committees existed in 2000 throughout the United Kingdom. New committees were often formed and existing committees merged, when for example, a Head Postmaster's area of responsibility was enlarged. Membership was drawn from local authorities, commercial organisations, local voluntary bodies, and individuals. The committees were non-statutory. Post Office managers attended meetings to explain Post Office policy and answer questions about local issues. The aim was to increase the confidence of the business community in the Post Office. Advisory Councils acted as liaison points between the Post Office and the local community on matters of mutual concern. Prior to the enactment of the Post Office Act of 1969 Advisory Committees were sponsored and, in some cases, financially supported by bodies such as the Post Office itself, Chambers of Commerce, Chambers of Trade and Local Authorities.

On 1 January 2001, the Secretary of State transferred all the property, rights and liabilities of the Post Office Users' National Council to Postwatch. The following was based on information taken from the Royal Mail Group website (http://www.royalmailgroup.com) in November 2006:

Postwatch (initially called the Consumer Council for Postal Services) was established to promote the interests of users of postal services within the framework of the Postal Services Act 2000. It replaced the Post Office Users' National Council (POUNC) and had a more extensive regional structure.

Postwatch was responsible for monitoring postal service standards and acts as a focus for consumer issues and complaints. It was consulted on key decisions including variations in the services for which postal licences were required, the granting and modification of licences, and the enforcement of licence conditions. Together with the Postal Services Commission (Postcomm), Postwatch also monitored and advised on the network of Post Office branches.

Postwatch stated that its role was to protect, promote and develop the interests of all customers of postal services in the UK. It campaigned for a better overall postal service for customers, advising Government, the Regulator and Royal Mail Group on consumer views, demands and needs.

Postwatch had a network of nine regional committees around England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The chairman of each committee sat on the National Council. The regional committees included; Scotland, Northern Ireland, Northern England, Wales, Midlands, East of England, Greater London, South East England, and the South and West. Postwatch also established the Counters Advisory Group 'to identify, consider and act on consumer concerns about issues affecting the post office network and to inform Postwatch's national policy development and campaigning work.' Postwatch also conducted research into consumer views.

According to information taken from Postwatch's website (http://www.postwatch.co.uk/) in September 2009, the body was merged with energywatch and the National Consumer Council (including the Welsh and Scottish Consumer Councils) on 1 October 2008 to create Consumer Focus, an organisation established to support the rights of consumers in England, Scotland, Wales and, for post, Northern Ireland.

No further information available

The Savings Bank was established by the Post Office Savings Bank Act 1861. This act empowered the Postmaster General to receive money on deposit, to make repayments, and to pay interest at the rate of two and a half per cent per annum on the balance outstanding to the credit of depositors. The Bank opened for business on 16 September 1861 using the already existing system of 301 Post Office Money Order offices and with 1,700 Post Offices acting as its local agents for deposit and withdrawal transactions. This quickly grew to 2,300 Post Offices. As the first institution of its kind in the world its success was immediate. The minimum deposit needed to open an account was fixed at one shilling.In 1861 the Savings Bank had twenty four thousand account holders and a staff of 200. By 1871 there were 1,300,000 accounts and the total sum on deposit was 15 million. The original system of manual book keeping lasted until 1926. Services were extended to include: government stocks and bonds in 1880; insurance and annuities in 1888; war savings certificates in 1916; (Renamed National Savings Certificates in 1920); premium savings bonds in 1956; investment accounts in 1966 and a Save as You Earn contractual scheme in 1969. A new logo for the Post Office Savings Bank, designed by Robert Gibbings and featuring a key, was introduced in 1936. In the mid 1960s as part of a general government policy to disperse staff from London, the Savings Certificate Division relocated to Durham, firstly into temporary accommodation then into a new purpose built office block. The move was completed by 1969. Other parts of the Savings Bank dealing with Ordinary and Investment accounts moved out of London to Glasgow. The Department was renamed 'Department for National Savings' in 1967. In 1969 the Department had a staff of over 14,000. By 1988, thanks largely to mechanisation and computerisation, this had been reduced to nearly half this size.When The Post Office ceased to be part of the Civil Service in 1969 and became a Public Corporation, the Savings Bank remained with the Civil Service and started a new life as a Public Corporation. The Post Office continued handling savings transactions over the counter on an agency basis.

Post Office

No further information available

Post Office

Baird , William , 1803-1872 , zoologist

Strickland , Hugh Edwin , 1811-1853 , geologist and zoologist

Hopkins , June Mary , b 1930 , naturalist

Buckland , Francis Trevelyan , 1826-1880 , naturalist

Hodgson , Brian Houghton , 1800-1894 , Indian civil servant and naturalist

Unknown

Not known

Winterne , A E W

Unknown

The Women's Freedom League (WFL) (1907-1961) was formed in Nov 1907 by dissenting members of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU). The cause was the WSPU's lack of constitutional democracy, an issue that came to a head on the 10 Sep 1907. Mrs Pankhurst announced the cancellation of the annual conference due on the 12 Oct 1907 and the future governance of the party by a central committee appointed by herself, effectively overturning its original constitution. Several members, including Charlotte Despard, Edith How Martyn, Teresa Billington-Greig, Octavia Lewin, Anna Munro, Alice Schofield and Caroline Hodgeson, broke away and continued with the conference. Here, the new constitution was written which encoded a system of party democracy. Its first committee consisted of Despard as president and honorary treasurer, Billington-Greig as honorary organising secretary, honorary secretary Mrs How Martyn, and Mrs Coates Hanson, Miss Hodgeson, Irene Miller, Miss Fitzherbert, Mrs Drysdale, Miss Abadam, Mrs Winton-Evans, Mrs Dick, Mrs Cobden Sanderson, Mrs Bell, Mrs Holmes and Miss Mansell as members. The following month, they renamed themselves the WFL, having used the title of the WSPU until that time: this had prompted Mrs Pankhurst to add 'National' to the name of her own organisation for this brief spell. They classed themselves as a militant organisation, but refused to attack persons or property other than ballot papers, unlike the WSPU. Their actions included protests in and around the House of Commons and other acts of passive civil disobedience. Their activities in 1908 included attempts to present petitions to the King and have deputations received by cabinet ministers while further protests were held in the House of Commons such as Muriel Matters, Violet Tillard and Helen Fox chaining themselves to the grille in the Ladies gallery. That same year, they were the only militant group to be invited by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies to take part in the Hyde Park procession on 13 Jun 1908. Despard was the first woman to refuse to pay taxes as a protest, an action which quickly inspired others to form the Women's Tax Resistance League. These activities were expanded upon in Apr 1911 when women householders either spoilt or failed to complete their census forms. This escalation of action did not prevent them joining a Conciliation Bill committee with other suffrage groups in 1910 in response to Prime Minister Asquith's offer on a free vote on extensions to the franchise. A truce was called with the Government until the failure of such a bill for the third time, but by 1912 the organisation had already announced that it would support Labour Party candidates against any of the Government's Liberal candidates at elections. This practice of working with other groups was one which the WFL supported, having ongoing links with the International Women's Franchise Club, the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the Suffrage Atelier. During the early part of the First World War, like most of the other suffrage organisations, the League suspended its practical militant political action and began voluntary work, though not the 'war work' of the type advocated by other suffrage groups. The group formed a number of women's police services and a Woman Suffrage National Aid Corps that provided some help to women in financial difficulties and limited day care for children. Furthermore, in 1915, the WFL founded a National Service Organisation to place women in jobs. However, the following year, political activity began again when they joined the WSPU in a picket of the Electoral Reform Conference. When women were granted suffrage after the war, they continued their activities with a change of emphasis. The organisation now called for equality of suffrage between the sexes, women as commissioners of prisons, the opening of all professions to women, equal pay, right of a woman to retain her own nationality on marriage, equal moral standards and representation of female peers in the House of Lords and they continued with this programme of social equality until the dissolution of the group in 1961.

Women's Institute

The club named the Women's Institute (1897-1928) predated the more famous National Federation of Women's Institutes by almost two decades and was of a very different character. It was founded in 1897 at 15 Grosvenor Crescent by Mrs Nora Wynford Philipps and was intended to be a centre for women involved in the professions, education, social and philanthropic work. It was also intended to make other societies' work better known through its information bureau and co-operated with the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women regularly. It initially held weekly debates and 'at homes' run by the Executive Committee and organised a musical society, an art society, a recreational department, a circulating library, and a voluntary workers' society for philanthropic work. It also organised a secretarial department that undertook the training of typists and book keepers as well as an employment service for its members. At the same time it acted as a centre for the organisation of social and educational activities and a centre for research and dissemination of information on various subjects. It was responsible for the publication of several works such as Mrs Sidgwick's 'The Place of University Education in the Life of Women', pamphlet versions of lectures and the 'Dictionary of Employments Open to Women'. By the turn of the century it had over 800 members and maintained links with over 45 other groups, making it necessary to move to its second location at 92 Victoria Street from where a large range of other feminist organisations operated. In 1916 it was responsible for the opening of the Women's Club for the wives and mothers of servicemen and during the First World War gave rooms to the British Women's Patriotic League, the London School of Needlework, the Women's Local Government Society and the Head Mistresses Association amongst others. After the war, it was the location of meetings of the Dexter Club, the Censorship Club and the association for former members of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. While is appears to have still been active in 1925, activities ceased some time around 1928.

Provenance uncertain

British Women's Emigration Association

The British Women's Emigration Association (BWEA)(1901-1919) was founded in 1901. The effort to encourage educated middle class women to emigrate in an effort to relieve the pressures of population growth and the perceived problem of the number of 'superfluous' unmarried women, led to the foundation of several organisations to assist the latter group. In 1884, several former members of the Women's Emigration Society came together to form the United Englishwoman's Emigration Register, which would go on to become the United Englishwoman's Emigration Association in Feb 1884. Its aims were to emigrate women of good character, to ensure their safety during and after their travel and to keep in touch with them for some time after their arrival. In Nov 1885, Ellen Joyce and Mrs Adelaide Ross replaced Miss Louisa Hubbard at the head of the organisation. By 1888, the group began to work in co-operation with the Scotch Girl's Friendly Association and the Scottish YWCA, prompting a change of name. The following year the new United British Women's Emigration Association changed the original constitution, centralising what had been a loose grouping of independent workers and outlining their responsibilities, roles and relationships. Their expansion continued, from the establishment of Irish and Scottish branches in 1889 to one in Staffordshire and one for Wiltshire and Somerset that same year, while another was established in Bath in 1891. Homes for emigrants waiting to depart were created in Liverpool in 1887 and in London in 1893. The majority of emigrants which passed through them in the 1890s were destined for Canada, New Zealand or Australia, but towards the end of the century, the flow of emigrants to South Africa increased to such a degree that it became necessary to set up a South African Expansion Scheme Committee. This would go on to become the independent South African Colonisation Society. In 1901, the parent organisation dropped the 'united' element of its name and continued to expand in their own fields, opening a hostel at Kelowna in British Colombia in 1913. After the outbreak of the First World War the number of emigrants declined. In 1917, a Joint Council of Women's Emigration Societies was established to deal with the situation after the war and liaise with central government. This co-operation between the British Women's Emigration Association, the Colonial Intelligence League and the South African Colonisation Society finally resulted in their amalgamation into the Society for the Overseas Settlement of British Women in Dec 1919.

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