THE ROYAL POST OFFICE

Press, Volume LXXVIII, Issue 23536, 14 January 1942, Page 2

THE ROYAL POST OFFICE

♦ DEALING WITH KING’S MAIL WORK AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE (OC) LONDON, October 28. Many people were first made aware that there was a post office inside Buckingham Palace when it received honourable mention m a broadcast describing the bombing of the London home of the King and Queen. Fortunately, the Court Post Office suffered no more than slight damage to windows The purpose of this post, office is primarily to deal with the Ring s } and that of the Royal household and the Court officials. But, in addition, it provides the ordinary post office facilities where postal ordeis and stamps can be purchased, letters and parcels posted, telegrams sent, and telephone calls made. The general public, however, has no access to the office; its services are exclusively for the use of those who live and work in Buckingham Palace. . Cables and telegrams are received and transmitted at the Court Post Office by means of the latest type of SSVtfßSbfiTfe&gj and Queen do not pass beyond tne Court telegraph operator. • The telephone .switchboard is of a special secret design, so that the °P® " ators cannot overnear a conversation after they had made tHe required connexion. Selected Post Office operators are employed to deal with personal calls from Their Majesties. There are many extensions from the switchboard linking up the other royal residences and important Government departments. The operators have acquired from experience an a ™° st canny way of picking just the ngm extension to find the particular person they are wanting at any given moment. Special Mails War and its many problems have meant that the King has to travel a great deal, visiting different parts of the country. Special mails and dispatches have to be made UP to reach him wherever he may be. On the occasion of some ~s P e ® J®J event affecting the Royal family, the staff at the Court Post Office has to work at high pressure. The intense activity caused by the silver jubilee celebrations of King George V will not be forgotten by the telegraphists, the telephonists, and the postal clerks who took part in it. The King’s mail was enormous. The variety and colouring of the stamps of many different countries would have delighted a collector’s heart, and were ample evidence of the world-wide enthusiasm aroused by the jubilee. Telegraph traffic became spectacular. More than 10,000 messages were handled during the period. Every sender of a telegram within the British Isles, no matter what his rank or station m life, had a reply from His Majesty or one sent by one of the private secretaries. Overseas messages were similarly answered, the more important by cable, but many by a personal letter from the King’s secretaries, or His Majesty s representatives in the dominions or colonies. Records Broken But all previous work records were broken at the time of the Coronation in 1937. The rush of mail and telegraph office, indeed, spread over many months. Large numbers of cables dealing with matters affecting overseas representatives, visitors, and other arrangements were forwarded and received from every part of the Empire. Many of the messages were of unusual length and mostly in code or cipher. Constitutional changes about that time had an important bearing on the work of the Court Post Office. c For many years Court Post Offices have been maintained at Windsor. Castle, Sandringham, and Balmoral Castle, the controlling office being at Buckingham Palace. In addition, the Palace Post Office dealt with the postal and telegraph work at Royal Dodge, Windsor: Marlborough House,' York House, St. James’ Palace, and 145 Piccadilly—the home of the King, when he was Duke of York —all of them affected by the Coronation preparations, and all connected by telephone to the Buckingham Palace switchboard. Palace Visitors Many distinguished foreign Royalties and their suites were accommodated at the Palace during Coronation week, and the switchboard, already carrying its load of important extensions, had to have increased exchange facilities and an augmented staff of operators. Just to add to the other worries, many of the visitors were imperfectly acquainted with the English language, and as they always asked for individuals by name and never by giving the number of the required extension, a good deal of patience and tac f was called for from the operators. Among the staff at these offices are counter clerks, telegraphists, telephonists, postmen, engineers, and messenger boys. Their duty is to keep in constant touch with the movement of the various Court officials so that there is no delay in directing correspondence and telephone calls to them. The war, of course, has made many additional precautions and safeguards necessary to ensure secrecy, and one day, perhaps, the full story of the Court Post Office will be told. For the present, it must suffice to record that the staff carry on their work during all raids, and their duties include the sounding of the Palace air-raid alarms and the calling out of the A.R.P. personnel.