26 chapters
8 hour read
Selected Chapters
26 chapters
THE POST OFFICE & ITS STORY
THE POST OFFICE & ITS STORY
Heaving Overboard the Mails. Fernando Noronha is a little island in the South Atlantic Ocean, and when a vessel does not call there the letters are enclosed in a cask, to which a flag is attached; this is cast into the sea and there left floating until a boat from the island picks it up. The island is sighted by perhaps more ships and visited by fewer than any other spot on the globe. BOTANY OF TO-DAY. A Popular Account of the Evolution of Modern Botany. By Prof. G. F. Scott Elliot, M.A., B.Sc.
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AUTHOR'S NOTE
AUTHOR'S NOTE
A great deal has been written about the General Post Office in newspapers and magazines, but the books on the subject are comparatively few. And these volumes are either exhaustive historical treatises, such as Mr. Herbert Joyce's History of the Post Office , or more popularly written descriptions of Post Office life and work of the character of Lewin's His Majesty's Mails or J. W. Heyde's Royal Mail . Mr. Joyce's work, however, carries us no farther than the eve of penny postage, while the othe
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER I POSTBOYS AND MAIL COACHES
CHAPTER I POSTBOYS AND MAIL COACHES
A schoolboy who was given the task of writing an essay on the Post Office used these words: “The Post Office contains the whole world's circumstances, or welfare, day after day, as a mother shuts all her chickens under her wings. A man would not reveal his very secreate words to his wife or to any one, but he trusts them to a weak envelope in the Post Office.” This boy was perhaps wiser than he knew. For there is no institution existing in the country which comes so near to the hearts and homes
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER II THE PENNY POST
CHAPTER II THE PENNY POST
It would be unjust to the memory of a great postal reformer to say that George Stephenson was the real author of Penny Postage, but it is quite fair to submit that it was the coming of the mail train which made Sir Rowland Hill's reform the great success which it ultimately became. It is true Sir Rowland Hill worked out his scheme when the mail coaches were still running, and it was a part of his case that the reform could be carried through with existing methods of carrying the mails, but it is
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER III LOMBARD STREET AND ST. MARTIN'S LE GRAND
CHAPTER III LOMBARD STREET AND ST. MARTIN'S LE GRAND
Nothing will give the reader a better idea of the advances made by the Post Office during the last two hundred years than a comparison of the various buildings which have from time to time been the home of the General Post Office in London. The story of the buildings is one of continued growth and expansion right down to the present day. The General Post Office is always becoming too small and inconvenient for its work. And there has scarcely been any period when it was not necessary to rent ove
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IV KING EDWARD'S BUILDING
CHAPTER IV KING EDWARD'S BUILDING
In every big town the post office is now one of the most important, while in some cases it is the most imposing of all the local public buildings. Here the head postmaster is to be found, and here all the post office business of the district is administered. People have often asked me, “Who is the postmaster of London?” They understand that the Postmaster-General and the Secretary have their offices at St. Martin's le Grand, but it is evident that these gentlemen are the supreme heads of the who
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER V THE TRAVELLING POST OFFICE
CHAPTER V THE TRAVELLING POST OFFICE
Something of the old romance of the service lingers about the Travelling Post Office. To those who work it there is always a possibility of adventure, not to mention the risk to life and limb, while to those who watch its operations there is that indefinable element which makes an appeal to the imagination. Moreover, in more than one of its features it links up our time with the old mail coach days. There are pictures in existence of the mail coach passing through a village or hamlet, and the ma
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VI THE PARCEL POST
CHAPTER VI THE PARCEL POST
Out of very small beginnings many great commercial enterprises have arisen, and the Parcel Post is not the only big business which sprang into being in a cellar. In the basement of the old General Post Office at St. Martin's le Grand in the year 1883 the Parcel Post began its work, and though it speedily outgrew this limited accommodation, not even the most optimistic of its supporters could have dreamed that in less than thirty years the General Post Office would be dealing annually with 118 mi
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VII MOTOR MAILS
CHAPTER VII MOTOR MAILS
In my first chapter I made a point of the fact that at the moment when travelling by mail coach had reached its highest point of excellence the coming of the railway gave the death-blow to the whole system. The long-distance traffic of this country was in the course of a few years diverted from the main roads, and for thirty years these thoroughfares, save for the local traffic between neighbouring places, were silent and unused. Nowhere was this revolution more noticeable than in the district r
13 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER VIII THE UNDELIVERED POSTAL PACKET
CHAPTER VIII THE UNDELIVERED POSTAL PACKET
It is often brought as a reproach against the General Post Office that while it occasionally fails to deliver a letter which is only slightly incorrect in its address, it frequently succeeds if the address is entirely wrong or is more or less unintelligible to the average reader. But Post Office men and women have the ordinary human point of view, and we must not blame them for sometimes despising the solution of simple difficulties and laying themselves out to solve the larger problems of offic
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER IX MONEY ORDERS AND POSTAL ORDERS
CHAPTER IX MONEY ORDERS AND POSTAL ORDERS
The first business undertaken by the General Post Office, other than that of the despatch and delivery of correspondence, was the Money Order system. This has existed for considerably more than a century, but it was not taken over by the Post Office until the year 1838. It is not difficult to understand why the need for the system became urgent in carrying on the service of the posts. The sending of letters containing money was a constant and almost necessary practice, and the frequent thefts of
16 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER X THE POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK
CHAPTER X THE POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK
The extension of banking facilities for the upper and middle classes of this country during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries only benefited the working classes indirectly. If they wished to save anything out of their earnings they were either obliged to resort to the time-honoured expedient of hiding their money in out-of-the-way corners of their houses or gardens or they entrusted it to the care of private individuals or institutions, and were in consequence without adequate security. Ev
24 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XI THE TELEGRAPH
CHAPTER XI THE TELEGRAPH
The modern world is almost losing its capacity for astonishment. The rapid advances of applied science, more particularly in the manipulation of that force to which we have given the name of electricity, but the origin and essence of which are unknown and wrapped in the deepest mystery, almost took away the breaths of a previous generation, but they leave us comparatively unmoved. We feel, perhaps, that we are only on the eve of still more astounding discoveries. Applied telegraphy dates practic
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XII THE TELEGRAPH (continued)
CHAPTER XII THE TELEGRAPH (continued)
A very important matter in connection with the Service is the timing of telegrams, and in order to provide for their correct and uniform timing throughout the United Kingdom, Greenwich mean time, which is received from the Observatory hourly, is distributed from the Central Office at 9 and 10 A.M. daily. To enable this to be done, one circuit to every office excepting certain principal towns is stopped just before 9 or 10 A.M. daily, and, as the gong sounds at these hours, the signal “nine” or “
14 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIII THE TELEPHONE
CHAPTER XIII THE TELEPHONE
If there was one thing more than another which must have seemed to our forefathers essential to conversation it was the presence of two or more individuals within what we call speaking distance of one another. Even in the cases where men have believed themselves to be in communication with the unseen world, the spirit with whom they held intercourse has been with them or near them. The one thing of which they could never have dreamed was, that in London you could talk rationally to a friend in P
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIV ENGINEERS, STORES AND FACTORIES
CHAPTER XIV ENGINEERS, STORES AND FACTORIES
In writing of the activities of the General Post Office, it is difficult to know where to stop, or in that slaughter of the innocents which must always take place when space is not available, to decide who is to be spared. We certainly cannot leave out the Post Office engineer. He often works unseen and unappreciated by the general public, but he has this consolation, that he is indispensable, and in the Post Office of the future he may become the most important man in the service. Sometimes, pe
17 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XV OCEAN MAILS
CHAPTER XV OCEAN MAILS
The change which has taken place in the carriage of oversea mails during the last hundred years is as great as the revolution which happened in the case of the inland postal service. And in both instances, of course, it was the discovery of the steam engine which accounted for the change. In both instances, also, it meant the closing of a period during which romance and adventure were the usual accompaniments of service in the Post Office. The sailing vessel, beautiful to look at and with her ca
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVI THE POSTAL UNION
CHAPTER XVI THE POSTAL UNION
In spite of desolating wars and quarrels between rival nations, there has been growing in Europe during the last fifty or sixty years a sense of the need for international action. The Great Exhibition of 1851 raised hopes of universal brotherhood and of the turning of spears into pruning-hooks, but in a few short years the nations were again engaged in the fiercest conflicts, and at the present time European countries are armed in a way that is a constant danger to peace. Still the fact remains
12 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVII CONCERNING FOREIGN POST OFFICES
CHAPTER XVII CONCERNING FOREIGN POST OFFICES
The whole tendency of the postal system in Europe and America is towards uniformity. The Postal Union is largely responsible for this, while the necessities of trade and foreign travel have brought about a simplification of methods and rates everywhere. Still, wherever there are differences of race and nationality even identical systems will be worked differently, and anybody who has travelled in Europe and America is forced at every turn to compare, favourably or unfavourably as the case may be
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XVIII THE POST OFFICES OF THE EMPIRE
CHAPTER XVIII THE POST OFFICES OF THE EMPIRE
During the processions which took place to commemorate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria, one of the most interesting features was the prominence given to the soldiers of the Empire. If it were possible to collect together a similar representative gathering of men who have served their sovereign in a civil capacity, a selection of the postmen of the Empire would be quite as interesting and perhaps equally picturesque. And if, in addition to the men, there could also pass through the streets
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XIX THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL AND THE PERMANENT STAFF
CHAPTER XIX THE POSTMASTER-GENERAL AND THE PERMANENT STAFF
If the Post Office were a private or joint-stock company, the office of Postmaster-General would be an anachronism; the Secretary would be the Chairman of the Company, and the Assistant Secretaries would be the Board of Management. I do not pretend that this is an accurate estimate of what would happen if the Post Office were disestablished, but there is no doubt that the duties of the Chairman and Board of Management in a business undertaking correspond very closely to those performed by the Se
20 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XX THE HEAD POSTMASTER
CHAPTER XX THE HEAD POSTMASTER
The supporters of an Established Church have often argued that the presence in any town or village of a State official pledged to the promotion of righteousness and the spiritual life is a national asset, and that it is to the advantage of every citizen to have a centre of sweet reasonableness provided for him at the rectory or vicarage. It is certainly a tradition of English country life to look to the clergyman of a parish to take the lead in many local matters, especially in those of a philan
18 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXI THE VILLAGE POST OFFICE
CHAPTER XXI THE VILLAGE POST OFFICE
All post offices other than a Head Office are called sub-offices. The definition embraces busy town offices as well as the village post office. The sub-office is usually managed by a man or woman who has other visible means of support. In the vast majority of cases the sub-office is a shop. And comprising as the ranks of sub-postmasters do all sorts and conditions of men, it is not surprising if we find more variety among this class of official than among the Head Postmasters. The Head Postmaste
21 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXII THE POSTMAN
CHAPTER XXII THE POSTMAN
It is easy to be eloquent on the subject of the postman. He is the outward and visible sign to us all of the postal service. He brings it to our doors. He has persisted, while other officials and other methods have passed away to make room for modern improvements. Post-boys, mail coaches, and mail trains have in turn carried our letters across country at increasing rates of speed, but the last stage, viz. the actual delivery of the letter, is still left to the postman. And I suppose his average
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIII THE POST OFFICE GUIDE
CHAPTER XXIII THE POST OFFICE GUIDE
It is wonderful how persistent are certain prejudices in the minds of the British public. With vast numbers of people it is an accepted fact that Bradshaw is unintelligible, and a book only for experts in travel. The A B C, with its delightful appeal in the title to the simple-minded, was brought out to meet the needs of such people, but to anybody who has grasped one or two elementary facts concerning our railway system there is no doubt whatever which is the more interesting volume. Bradshaw w
19 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
CHAPTER XXIV OLD AGE PENSIONS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE POST OFFICE
CHAPTER XXIV OLD AGE PENSIONS AND OTHER ACTIVITIES OF THE POST OFFICE
The General Post Office undertakes several duties for the State that are not strictly proper to the Department, but which fall to its share because of the splendid machinery it possesses for getting into touch with the people. And when big reforms come along, such as Old Age Pensions or National Insurance, although the money is to come out of imperial funds, and is not brought into the Post Office balance-sheet at all, it seems the most natural thing for the Treasury to use as paymaster or recei
23 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter