At the start of the 1930's, the Post Office had become a vast public body - with postal services,  telecommunications and telegrams. This article concentrates on the postal services.

After a good deal of public criticism of the Post Office, a committee of enquiry was set up under Viscount Bridgeman to make recommendations for improvements. Reorganisation began in 1934 resulting in the following structure by the start of the Second World War:

By 1939 there were:

There were three categories of Post Office:

Head or District Post Offices which transacted general postal business and were also sorting centres. (For example, the South-Western District Office, near Victoria Station, handled all the official Whitehall correspondence, together with that of the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace). London also had over 100 Sub-district offices, which were local sorting and delivery centres.

Branch Post Offices - usually located in main shopping centres with paid staff. There were more than 200 of these in London alone.

Sub-Post Offices - usually located inside a shop such as a general store. The owner of a sub-post office was not paid a salary, but received an annual allowance calculated on the amount of postal business carried out.

The Second World War

The Post Office began to make serious preparations for a possible war back in 1937. Then, when the war did start, the so called eight months of 'phoney war' at home gave the Post Office time to continue its preparations for what was to come. The Post Office created air-raid shelters, underground Postal facilities, alternative routes for mail, and made arrangements for emergency telecommunications essential for air defences. War time restrictions were gradually enforced - telegrams had to be in plain English; telephone calls to foreign countries were suspended; the Empire Airmail Scheme, mail to most of Europe, and all inland air mail routes were halted.

Manpower shortages commenced immediately, with fifteen per cent of Post Office staff leaving to join the forces during the first week. During the war, of 300,000 Post Office workers, more than a third were called-up or volunteered for the armed services, and over 50,000 joined the Home Guard. The Post Office had its own Air Raid Wardens, First Aid Detachments, Rescue Parties, Fire Fighters and Fire Watchers. On occasion men were released from the services for short periods to work for the Post Office.

Plans to celebrate the centenary of penny postage in May 1940 were seriously curtailed, though a stamp issue went ahead. During May postal charges, telephone charges and telegram rates were increased to supplement revenue.

The Blitz and later V1 and V2 attacks, concentrated on attacking urban centres, and though Post Office services were often disrupted they continued to keep essential communications going. For example, Birmingham's Head Post Office was hit twice - but emergency services were available; the Bristol Head Telegraph Office was destroyed - with an emergency office opened just 2 days later; the Battersea branch office was destroyed - with deliveries going on as usual the next morning. 23 London post offices were hit during one night in September 1940 at the height of the blitz - many were re-opened the next day without glass in their windows and with candles for lighting - mobile post offices were also used. Mount Pleasant sorting office, the largest in the country, was severely damaged - repairs were often carried out as bombs continued to fall. Even when pillar boxes were hit, the Post Office Salvage Corps would dig them out and recover what mail they could.

Disruption to the transport systems also seriously affected postal services. All the main London Stations were hit and were put out of action for varying lengths of time. The Travelling Post Office was discontinued. Sometimes the rail network was so badly damaged that it was necessary to organise road convoys for mail. However, the underground Post Office railway in London continued to operate throughout the war except for a couple of brief periods when it was flooded following a bombing raid (16 October 1940) and a V2 rocket attack, (December 1944).

Home delivery of mail was reduced. With major damage in many residential areas, a plea went from the Post Office that, 'If your house is without a number, please chalk it up plainly.... The temporary postman may not be so familiar with the neighbourhood as his predecessor'. The Post Office allowed free redirection of letters and parcels as a result of destruction of housing and address relocations.

The 'Home Front' war on waste was pursued. Many Post Office publications were withdrawn such as telephone directories from public kiosks, and the Post Office Guide. Labels were produced for the re-use of envelopes. The 'pale shades' of definitive stamps were introduced with the explanation; 'This change will make the cancellation of postage stamps more effective and at the same time reduce the consumption of valuable dye'. 

Just before the war, airmail services had been expanding rapidly. European All-up services, the Empire Air Mail scheme, and the new North Atlantic service had to be discontinued at the outset of the war. Air mail for north America was sent to Lisbon, then on by air mail services provided by Pan American Airways. Air mail to the Far East was carried part way by ship. From June 1940, air mail to the Middle East and Africa went by surface routes to South Africa, then on by air 'within the limits of available aircraft accommodation'.

The need for mail to maintain troops morale was fully recognised. Mail to the troops went at domestic rates without the increase in charges after 1 May 1940. Letters home from the troops were sent without charge, ('On Active Service'). Services mail for the army and RAF was sorted at Nottingham, fleet mail was handled at Reading as well as the King Edward Building GPO.

New methods of keeping up the post to the armed services were devised. In April 1941 the Post Office issued a thin air mail postcard, especially in the Middle East and East Africa. Also in April 1941 the airgraph was introduced. At first the airgraphs were only available for use of troops sending mail to the United Kingdom; the first airgraphs from the UK were sent from August 1941, and the service later allowed civilian use. Light-weight air-letters were another method of reducing space and weight on aircraft and replaced the air mail postcards from December 1942.

The Post Office provided services for prisoners of war. Mail and parcels from the UK went via Lisbon - by June 1943 the Post Office announced that a million parcels had been sent via this route for prisoners in Germany and Italy. Air mail letter cards and air-letters were also produced for this service. 

The Post Office operated under extreme conditions throughout most of the war, and overall its service to the public was of tremendous benefit. The Select Committee on Expenditure stated 'the public have reason to be grateful to the whole organization of the General Post Office for the way in which immeasurable difficulties have been surmounted'.

73,000 men and women from the Post Office joined the armed services - 3,800 were killed.

413 Post Office workers serving at home were killed.

Post War Years

Many saw this as a lack of imagination on the part of the Post Office, especially when events such as the wedding of Princess Elizabeth, were not marked, (and the opportunity for raising additional revenue was missed).

Air mail services were restarted. The airgraph service ended in 1945, while air letters continued. 

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Contact : Malcolm Sanders :  kg6gb@hotmail.com