THE POST OFFICE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 55, Issue 279, 7 September 1935, Page 10

THE POST OFFICE

THREE CENTURIES OLD CELEBRATION IX BRITAIN Oil July 31 the General Post Office celebrated the tercentenary of its existence as a state postal service. Throughout the srvice the day was appropriately observed, says “The Times.” The chief post offices in London and other centres were gaily decorated ; a message of congratulation from the King to. the PostmasterGeneral, Major G. C. J’yrou, was displayed in the windows of 23,000 post offices in the United Kingdom ; and in the afternoon Major Tryon addressed many thousands of the employees by means of a complete broadcasting system, installed by service engineers, linking up twenty-seven provincial centres with London and involving telephone circuits with over 35,000 miles of wire. The King’s message was as follows: Buckingham Palace. On July 31 the British Post Office will celebrate its 300th anniversary and it gives me much pleasure in this Jubilee Year to send a message of congratulation and good wishes to the many thousands of all ranks in the Pest Office Service. Every household is mad© daily aware of the efficiency of their work, which is carried out with a. punctuality and a. cheerfulness that commands the admiration and gratitude of the public. Although marked progress has recently been made, I feel sure that the next few years will witness still further improvements designed to meet the requirements of the millions to whom the Post Office Service means so much.

George R.I

Thomas Witherings

The history of the British postal service began with the proclamation by Charles I on July 31, 1635, appointing Thomas Witherings to establish and manage the first 'State service for the conveyance of private letters in England and Scotland. Thomas Witherings thus became the first PestmasterGeneral. For more than 100 years before this date there had been an organised system of posts for the carriage and distribution of State documents and correspondence from point to point in Great Britain and to and from other countries. This service was under the control of a “Master of Posts for England and Scotland and for Foreign parts in the King’s Dominions,” an appointment held for a time by Lord Stanhope of Harrington. But in 1632 a separate and distinct appointment of “Masters ol Posts fur Foreign Parts out of the King’s Dominions” was granted by letters patent to Witherings and one William Frizell. Witherings appears to have been the dominant partner. As Foreign Postmaster, he organised by 1633 a packet service for France and the Netherlands for the conveyance of both state and private letters, his organisation including not only posts to Dover and across the Channel but also posts established in those countries.- Then lie turned his attention to the service in this country, where, in addition to an unofficial" use of the State system of conveyance for private letters, there was a system under which merchants and manufacturers sent correspondence by tmekmen, carriers, and ship’s captains who conveyed goods on their behalf. Lord Stanhope was still the Inland and Colonial Master of Posts for State dispatches when Witherings took over the Inland and Colonial service for private letters in 1635, in addition to his duties as Foreign Master of Post for both State ajul private correspondence, but after Lord Stanhope s dismissal Witherings took over all the posts. Among the orders in his first ordinance was one prescribing'a rate of travelling for the letter post of seven miles an hour in "summer and five in winter. When he addressed his broadcast message to the employees of the service—many of them from outlying centres, where loud-speakers were attached to the telephone—-Major Tryon reviewed the history and the growth of the British Post Office.