Services Mail

This section only deals with Services mail within the UK. For an excellent introductory history of the BFPO system, go to : www.tafsc.com/PostalHistory.htm : and for the Army Postal Service in the Second World War : www.remuseum.org.uk/specialism/rem_spec_pcsww2.htm

The Fleet - Most of the mail for the fleet went to the Foreign Section in the King Edward Building, London for sorting, (the remainder was dealt with at a special Admiralty Fleet Mail Office at Reading). Mailbags were labelled with the names of ships with a code number only indicating the location for security. Each bag was sent for a destination tag affixed by a special team of men. The bags were then placed upside down in another bag bearing a destination label, but not the name of the ship.

Mail for the fleet being sorted by wrens >

Army / RAF - The Army Postal Service is operated by the Royal Engineers (RE). The APS also handled RAF mail. The organization of the APS was detailed in a manual issued in 1937.

Mail being sorted in Italy

At the start of the war the main operating centre for mail to and from the army / RAF overseas was the Home Depot located in the Mount Pleasant Sorting Office, London. The first mail to the British Expeditionary Force was sent on 14 September - on the following day, the Home Depot was relocated to the Post Office in Reading (15/16 September 1939). This was only a temporary measure and the Home Depot moved again to utilise a new sorting office in Bournemouth (1 December 1939) and to be nearer to the port of Southampton.

'Home Depot R.E.P.S.' postmarks numbered 1 to 20 lasted from 1939 to 1942. 'Home Depot' rubber postmarks were used from 1940.

Following the fall of France, the Home Depot became known as the Home Postal Centre - (HPC RE) of the Army Post Service. The HPC was based in various buildings in Nottingham from May 1941 until 1947. Nottingham was nearer to the main ports of Liverpool and Glasgow and away from the south coast. G.P.O. officials were enlisted into the Royal Engineers Postal Section [R.E.(P.S.)] to control this office. It was mainly staffed by women from the A.T.S. (Auxiliary Territorial Service) and men unfit for active service. By 1944 there were over 3000 staff at the HPC.

'Home Postal Centre' postmarks numbered 1 to 16 lasted from 1942 to 1947

For an excellent account of the work of the ATS at Nottingham, click here

The HPC was organised into various branches and departments such as sorting offices, inquiries, locations, telegrams, airgraphs, pow mail.....

.....Returned Letter Branch - mail that could not be delivered was returned via the Army Post Office or Field Post Office. Some mail could then be redirected, other mail was returned to the HPC to be dealt with by the Returned Letter Branch. Field Records were searched and if the mail was still unable to be redirected it was returned to the sender. Care was taken that returned mail intended for those missing or killed was not returned to the sender until after official notification.

Example of mail returned by the HPC in 1943 >

Closed addresses c/o APO were used for security to ensure that unit locations would not be known. The Home Depot contained a Central Location Service under high security which held army and RAF unit dispositions. Mail sent care of the Army Post Office only needed number, rank, name and unit.

Until 1940, army and RAF personnel within the UK would mainly use the civilian mail services. After the withdrawal of British Forces from continental Europe it was decided to create a Home Forces Postal Organization. This allowed for greater censorship, increased security (some base locations needed to be kept secret, so FPO numbers were used), and also prepared in case of German invasion. It became a military offence for services personnel to use the civilian mail services, they had to use the Army Postal Service, however, many broke this regulation until stricter enforcement came about coming up to D-day.

From July 1940, mail to and from British Forces in the UK was to be addressed to 'Home Forces'. Six Army Postal Distribution Centres were set up in August 1940 at London (APDC 1), Bristol (APDC 2), Leeds (APDC 3), Crewe (APDC 4), Edinburgh (APDC 5) and Belfast (APDC 6) - a seventh centre was set up in 1941 at Inverness to distribute mail from northern Scotland. These centres received mail from the HPC or direct from the Post Office and handled mail from army / RAF units. Units made their own arrangements to collect and deliver their mail from their allocated APDC.

During 1941 the R.E.P.S. introduced Airgraphs and Air Letter Sheets to lighten the loads being carried and to speed the transit time of mail.

In October/November 1942 an RAF Postal Service was created as an emergency measure (until 1947). As well as RAF Post Offices and Post Rooms in the UK and overseas, there was a RAF Postal School at Morpeth. The RAF PS worked alongside the Army Post Office.

The Army Postal Service was involved in virtually every campaign throughout the war, [for a brief guide see : Mailshot, A history of the Forces Postal Service].

During 1944 APO's were set-up for each of the eleven marshalling areas in the south of England, ready for D-day, (6 June). R.E.P.S. personnel were among the 6th Airborne Division landing by parachute and by glider, others arrived shortly after, even setting up stations on the beaches. 40 postal personnel were involved in the landings on D-day; there were 80 by D+1, and 200 by D+7. The first despatches from Normandy were made on D+2, arriving in the UK on D+5. From 6 July a daily return air service was set up for letter mail, and then for daily newspapers. The first air services were flown by Dakotas from RAF Blakehill to Sommervieu or Amblie in France. The address for British troops (including the RAF) in the invasion forces, became; 'c/o British Liberation Army'.

In 1947 the Home Postal Centre was moved to Sutton Coldfield taking over the buildings previously used by the American Army Postal Depot.

In 1949 the Services Postal Executive Committee was created to "Settle postal procedures and technical questions as between the three services, the Merchant Navy and the Postal Authorities, and to carry out the necessary planning for wartime postal services for the Armed Forces and the Merchant Navy".

Contact : Malcolm Sanders : kg6gb@hotmail.com